Emine Dzheppar, First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, addresses Indian leaders
New Delhi:
Ukraine has suggested India recognize the dangers of not stopping those who prefer to advance their agenda “with impunity,” seen as a nod to India’s two big neighbors — Pakistan and China.
Speaking to the diplomatic corps, former envoys and reporters at ICWA today, Emine Dzhaparova, the first deputy minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, said the events leading up to last year’s large-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine could serve as an example of how to with “difficult neighbors”.
“There is a message I came to India with. Ukraine really wants India and Ukraine to get closer. Yes, there is a story between us. But we want to start a new relationship with India,” said Ms. Dzhaparova at the Delhi-based Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA), a government institute of national importance established solely to study international relations and foreign affairs.
“India also has a difficult neighborhood with China and Pakistan. The Crimean episode also has a lesson for India. Whenever there is impunity and it’s not stopped, it gets bigger,” she said.
Her comments were seen as a reference to India’s territorial disputes with Pakistan and China amid ongoing tensions along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh, where Chinese troops often seek to change the status quo despite de-escalation talks.
Russia seized Crimea in eastern Ukraine in 2014, eight years before launching its all-out invasion of Ukraine. In 2016, Ukraine was certain that Russia was planning a major invasion when President Vladimir Putin ordered a build-up of troops on its border and resumed the hostile rhetoric that preceded its annexation of Crimea two years earlier.
Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February last year. The war is still going on.
However, Ms Dzhaparova made it clear that Ukraine was unable to ask India how it maintained its economic ties with other countries, in an apparent reference to New Delhi-Moscow energy ties. India has been buying cheap Russian oil — despite Western sanctions against Russia — citing that Indians’ need for affordable oil comes first above all else and India will go where it does good business.
She said Ukraine would welcome National Security Adviser Ajit Doval to visit her country. “We are expecting the visit of Ajit Doval. Russia has more time for visits. We are facing a war. Sometimes you want to do something but you can’t… My visit is a sign of friendship, for a better relationship with India, but it requires reciprocity,” said Ms. Dzhaparova.
There is speculation that one of the aims of their visit is to explore the possibility of having Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speak at the G20 summit.
The Ukrainian minister called India a “Vishwaguru”. “The message of every spiritual teaching is justice. But sometimes there are countries that choose war. India should play a bigger role… We signed the Minsk Accords because we were weak at the time. But after February 24, that logic will not be acceptable to us,” she said, citing the day of the Russian invasion in 2022 and the previous deal with Russia after the 2014 Crimean invasion, which included some very unfavorable clauses for contains Ukraine.