Past ties with Pakistan mustn't hit India-Ukraine relations: Kyiv

Sandeep Dikshit

New Delhi, April 11

Ukraine’s First Deputy Foreign Minister Emine Dzhaparova called on New Delhi to forget Kyiv’s past dalliances with Pakistan on Kashmir and military supplies, and wanted her President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to address the G20 summit that will be organised in India later this year.

Admitting that Ukraine had military contracts with Pakistan for decades, she wanted both sides to “turn the page of history and build new relationships” as “Ukraine is now in a position to produce things for itself”.

Ukraine’s ties with Pakistan were not targeted against India, she clarified, and maintained that talks of Pakistani military supplies to Kyiv were in the past.

On Ukraine’s past support to Pakistan over Kashmir, Union Minister of State for External Affairs Meenakshi Lekhi served a reminder about the region’s history. Two books presented to the visiting minister were both on Kashmir. While one was “Two plays: A City of Sorrow and Curse” by Kashmiri-origin writer Moti Lal Kemmu, the other was “Kalhana Rajatarangini” about the history of Kashmiri kings.

The minister said she had invited India to join Zelenskyy’s so-called “Peace Formula” and the “Grain From Ukraine” initiative. “It is important to have India on board,” she said after having met Lekhi.

“PM Narendra Modi’s policy of democracy, dialogue and diversification is important for Ukraine,” she added.

Besides seeking more humanitarian assistance in her meeting with Lekhi, Dzhaparova met Deputy National Security Adviser (NSA) Vikram Misri and extended an invitation to NSA Ajit Doval to visit Ukraine.

The government gave a mixed message regarding the first trip to India by a Ukrainian minister since the conflict with Russia broke out in February last year.

Instead of private think tanks such as the Observer Research Foundation (ORF), Dzhaparova was on Tuesday offered the platform of the MEA-funded Indian Council of World Affairs.

She was also invited to hold a discussion with members of the Manohar Parrikar Institute of Defence Studies and Analysis, another think tank funded by the government.

However, the minister, who burst into the limelight after attending a US State Department course, was given no leeway on the protocol side. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, who left for Africa on Sunday, Doval and Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra did not meet her.

G20 should not get politicised: Kant

India has once again pushed back against politicisation of the G20 over the Ukraine war and said the success of India’s presidency of the grouping would be defined by its push for global priorities, not war. “Our view is that G20 should not get politicised,” said India’s G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant at the National Leadership Conclave of the All-India Management Association in Delhi on Tuesday.