Modi’s Russia visit

Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Moscow on July 8-9 for the 22^nd edition of the India-Russia Annual summit. These summits are occasions for in-depth discussions at the highest level on bilateral, regional and global issues. As this was Modi’s first visit to Russia after President’s Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 the trip attracted considerable international attention. This was especially because India has carefully navigated its Russia-Ukraine policy since the Russian invasion. It has not condemned the Russian action but has made it clear that war is not a solution to the issues between the two countries. This position was first directly articulated by Modi to Putin himself during their meeting in September 2022 on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Samarkand. Emphasising the need for the peaceful resolution of disputes Modi said that this was not an era for war. His comment was reported widely across the globe and was appreciated by Western leaders. In this background it was natural that the Modi visit would be closely monitored in the capitals of the major powers and in Kyiv too. It was.

Modi met Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky at the G7 outreach summit in Italy in June. The meeting was cordial and the official spokesperson of the India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said, inter alia, in a post on the social media site X “PM conveyed that India continues to encourage a peaceful resolution of the conflict through dialogue and diplomacy”. Zelensky had earlier publicly urged India to participate in the peace summit organized by Switzerland on Ukraine on June 15-16 because of its international “significance and weight”. While China did not attend the summit India sent a delegation led by a senior diplomat. Naturally, Russia avoided the summit altogether for it would have only been criticized. While India—and some other countries such as Brazil did not sign the meeting’s final document—the fact that India sent a delegation should have been taken by Ukraine as an important gesture. It should have shown understanding on India’s continuing strategic interests in Russia which require it to tread a careful path on the conflict. Indeed, Ukraine itself took a neutral position on India-Pakistan relations despite Pakistani negativity against this country. It sold arms to Pakistan beginning with the decade of the 1990s.

Zelensky was obviously disappointed to see Modi in Moscow and that too on a day when a Russian missile hit a hospital killing a large number of children. The Russians maintain that the hospital was damaged not by their missile attack but by the debris of a Ukrainian anti-missile system. The former is however more likely. Nevertheless, even in stressful situations leaders are expected to be restrained in their use of language. Zelensky did not follow this practice and stated “It is a huge disappointment and a devastating blow to peace efforts to see the leader of the world’s largest democracy hug the world’s most bloody criminal on such a day”. In response to the death of Ukrainian children in the attack Modi commented that the death of innocent children makes the heart bleed and leads to terrifying pain. However, these words did not elicit a response from Kyiv.

It has been reported, in the media, that India called in the Ukrainian envoy in Delhi to protest Zelensky’s remarks. It also cancelled or postponed a bilateral India-Ukraine meeting on cultural cooperation to further signal its unhappiness. In its internal deliberations Ukraine may well consider that India’s relations with Russia will not be diluted and that it will not go beyond calls for dialogue and diplomacy while it will also go on to look after its security interests and also buy discounted Russian oil; hence, there was no need for Zelensky to be restrained. In this context it may also point to the formulation on the Ukraine issue (paragraph 74) in the Joint Statement issued on June 9 at the conclusion of the Modi-Putin summit. The paragraph states “The sides highlighted the peaceful resolution of the conflict around Ukraine through dialogue and diplomacy including engagement between both parties. They noted with appreciation relevant proposals of mediation and good offices aimed at peaceful resolution of the conflict in accordance with international law and on the basis of the UN Charter”.

Not only Ukrainian diplomats but others too would immediately notice the use of the formulation “conflict around Ukraine”. The phrase can be interpreted creatively by the Russians to assert that as they have amalgamated some territories in eastern and southern Ukraine formally as part of Russia any conflict there is not in Ukraine but “around Ukraine”. No country has recognised the merger of these territories and hence as far as India is concerned it can state that the word “around” does not connote that it has accepted the merger of Ukrainian territory into Russia. It can also point out that the merger of territories has to be in accordance with “international law and the UN Charter” which has been specifically mentioned in the paragraph. Diplomats have to use language in bilateral and multilateral documents which can be interpreted in accordance with the requirements of the signatories. While these serve the purpose of ensuring that the concerned meetings succeed but the fact is that they do nothing for the resolution of the conflict. That is clearly the case here. The Modi-Putin summit succeeded because the two countries renewed their commitment to take forward their wide-ranging cooperation and also because their views coincide on some issues. On Ukraine though a papering over was done and that will not contribute to the resolution of the conflict.