New Delhi: Ukraine Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, who is on his two-day visit to India, reached New Delhi on Thursday, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) confirmed. According to the statement released by the ministry, EAM S Jaishankar invited his Ukranian counterpart Kuleba to visit India. The same was echoed by the Ukrainian minister in a social media post after landing in New Delhi. Kuleba, in an X post, said he would act as a medium of communication between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in securing a peace deal with Russia.
"The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, H. E. Dmytro Kuleba, will be arriving in New Delhi on 28 March 2024 for a two-day official visit at the invitation of the External Affairs Minister," MEA said.
During his visit, the ministry said Kuleba will have a number of engagements, including official meetings with Jaishankar and Deputy NSA to discuss matters pertaining to the bilateral partnership and cooperation on regional and global issues of mutual interest. He is also expected to interact with the business community.
Ukraine wants India to play the role of peacemaker
It is worth mentioning India TV had earlier reported about the visit of Ukrainian FM in the last week of March. The same was confirmed by Kuleba in an emotional video posted on social media on March 25. Earlier this month, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and PM Narendra Modi held a telephonic conversation where the former urged the Indian leader to play the role of peacemaker. In return, the PM also echoed the same.
After the conversation, PM Modi posted on social media platform X, formerly Twitter, to say he had expressed to Zelenskyy “India’s consistent support for all efforts for peace and bringing in an early end to the ongoing conflict,” adding that the country will continue to provide humanitarian assistance. Therefore, it is expected that Kuleba would insist his Indian counterpart use India's goodwill with Russia to end the ongoing conflict early.
In January, Jaishankar and Kuleba held a phone conversation focusing on the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and Kyiv's peace formula. Following the conversation, Kuleba had said that he conveyed to his Indian counterpart the "peace formula" and Ukraine's plan for the 'Global Peace Summit' of leaders. A summit is scheduled to be held in Switzerland in the coming months. Surprisingly, Russia, which has been playing the main role in the war, was not invited to the summit.
First visit of any Ukranian leader after the Russia-Ukraine war
Notably, this would be the first time when New Delhi invited a senior Ukrainian minister ever since Russia launched an attack on Kyiv. Earlier, it was speculated that India would invite Zelenskyy to the G20 Summit, which was organised in New Delhi from September 9-10. Global leaders including US President Joe Biden, UK PM Rishi Sunak and others attended the event. However, Ukraine was not invited amid the fact Russia is also an active member of the Group of Twenty nations and its foreign minister was scheduled to attend the New Delhi event. According to an official from the MEA who had spoken to India TV on the condition of anonymity, if India had invited Ukraine, it would have hampered the goal which India eventually reached in its New Delhi declaration.
