Amid a full-scale war with Russia, Ukraine said it wants to start a new relationship with India. Citing Russia’s occupation of eastern Ukraine’s Crimea in 2014 as a lesson for New Delhi, the First Deputy Minister of Ukraine’s foreign ministry said India has a difficult neighbourhood with China and Pakistan.
Emine Dzhaparova, the First Deputy Minister of Ukraine’s foreign ministry, is visiting India for the first time after Russia began its invasion of the east European country on February 24 last year.
“There is one message with which I have come to India. Ukraine really wants India and Ukraine to be closer. Yes, there is a history between us. But we want to start a new relationship with India,” NDTV quoted Dzhaparova as saying at an event in New Delhi.
The minister said further said, “India also has a difficult neighbourhood with China and Pakistan. The Crimea episode has a lesson for India as well. Whenever impunity happens and if it is not stopped, it becomes bigger.”
Dzhaparova earlier said India is a global leader and can help in addressing key global challenges and promoting peace. She invoked Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s message to Russian President Vladimir Putin in September last year that ‘today’s era is not of war’.
Dzhaparova said she updated the Indian side on Ukraine’s efforts to fight Russia’s “unprovoked aggression” and invited New Delhi to join President Volodymyr Zelensky’s peace formula and the grain initiative.
At the same time, she also said that Ukraine is not in a position to instruct India on its economic relations with other countries, in an apparent reference to New Delhi’s energy ties with Moscow.
Dzhaparova described India as a global leader and a ‘Vishwaguru’ which can play a role in addressing global challenges.
“I think India is a global player. It is really a ‘Vishwaguru’ of the world. We are feeling the pain by actually fighting for the values. This is about justice. Rusia is questioning the very existence of my country. In our history of 1,500 years, Ukraine never attacked any country,” she said.
“We never have this imperialistic and chauvinistic attitude towards our neighbours. We are victims of the unprovoked neo-colonial war.
“There is a need to promote peace and justice as your prime minister in Samarkand also said that ‘it is not an era of war’. Would we support this? Purely and fully,” she said.
(With PTI inputs)
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