Prime Minister Narendra Modi did a tightly-choreographed balancing act by visiting Kyiv a month after he made Moscow his first port of call following his third successive victory in the general elections. The optics of his hugging President Vladimir Putin in July under full international glare had gone awry, as it happened the day a rogue Russian missile slammed into a children’s hospital in Kyiv.
Despite the prime minister sharing his outrage with Putin at innocent children becoming collateral damage in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the damage was done. It led to adverse comments from Western nations questioning India’s neutrality in the war. India’s calculated equidistance was to protect its national interest so as to avoid an economic haemorrhage, as it got to import deeply-discounted Russian oil amid Western sanctions aimed at degrading Putin’s war machine.
At Kyiv, Modi spun the neutrality question around to claim the country has not avoided taking sides or been indifferent, but has always been an active player on the side of peace. He emphasised New Delhi’s commitment to uphold the principles of international law, including the UN Charter, such as respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty of states during his talks with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Modi’s embraces continued to be a talking point, drawing a withering response from External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar to a question by a foreign journalist. Jaishankar attributed the journalist’s lack of understanding to a possible cultural gap, adding such gestures are a common practice in India. He went on to point out that Modi had embraced Zelenskyy as well.
While in Kyiv as in Moscow, Modi said he was ready to play any role to promote peace in the region and urged both sides to quickly set up a talks table. But the Russian and Ukrainian leaderships do not appear to be in a mental frame to tamp down tensions at present. Ukraine threw up a surprise a few weeks ago by launching an audacious incursion into Russia in Kursk and is continuing to expand its footprint there.
Russia’s counterpunch came in the form of a recent barrage of over 100 missiles and an equal number of drones primarily targeting Kyiv’s energy installations. Modi, the first Indian PM to visit Kyiv since bilateral relations were established in 1992, might perhaps have wanted to time it better—when peace would have had a real chance.