New Delhi: Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba is likely to pay a brief visit to India later this month, in his first trip to the country after the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine conflict over two years back. The visit is in the process of being finalised and if everything goes according to plan, Kuleba will be in New Delhi by the end of March, news agency PTI reported citing people familiar with the matter.
The Ukranian foreign minister is set to hold wide-ranging talks with his Indian counterpart Dr S Jaishankar besides meeting a number of senior officials, they said. Kuleba is expected to seek India's support for a peace summit that is being planned in Switzerland within the next couple of months.
Ukranian minister to discuss peace formula
During his visit to New Delhi, Kuleba and Jaishankar are expected to co-chair a meeting of the India-Ukraine inter-governmental commission, the people cited above said.
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.
Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy put forward a 10-point "peace plan" for ending the conflict that included punishing those responsible for the war crimes, withdrawing all Russian troops from Ukraine and restoring his country's territorial integrity. Under the plan, he also called for ensuring energy security, food security and nuclear safety.
India's stance
India has been maintaining that the conflict in Ukraine must be resolved through dialogue and diplomacy. In May last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held in-person talks with Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Hiroshima. In the talks, the prime minister conveyed to the Ukranian leader that India would do whatever was possible to find a solution to the conflict.
Earlier on Monday, when the Indian Prime Minister congratulated Russian President Vladimir Putin for resecuring next term as President, the social media post was not greeted by the Ukrainian leader. Both Kyiv and West denounced the Russian Presidential election and dubbed it "unfair" and "rigged".
