Saving G20: India’s Secret Efforts to end Ukraine War
STORIES, ANALYSES, EXPERT VIEWS
India is doing its best to seek an end to the 17-month-old conflict between Russia and Ukraine. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) did not announce in advance or after the event its participation in a Ukraine-related secret conference at Copenhagen in June-end. Sanjay Verma, India’s second-ranked career diplomat (after the Foreign Secretary), represented the country at this conference. In another such instance, the MEA did not tell anyone prior to Verma’s travel to Kyiv that he would be with the top Ukrainian leadership on the day Modi would discuss the war with French President Emmanuel Macron.
The stage for such secret diplomacy in the cause of peace was set by Modi’s meeting with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Hiroshima in May — the first meeting between the two men since the war began. That meeting as well as a visit to New Delhi by Ukraine’s First Deputy Foreign Minister Emine Dzhaparova in April were part of India’s public diplomacy with Ukraine.
Working towards peace to prevent G20 summit from ending in discord
Outlandish though it may sound on the surface, K P Nayar, Strategic Analyst writes “the need of the hour for India is to be seen as working towards peace in Ukraine. A peace initiative in which India plays a part is the only way New Delhi can prevent the G20 summit in September from ending in discord. Such a prospect is unthinkable for those who have toiled for two years for the success of the summit as the crowning foreign policy achievement of Modi’s second term in office. It is clear by now, after more than 50 high-level meetings all over India since the assumption of the organisation’s presidency, that the conundrum over the Ukraine conflict will prevent the G20 from reaching a consensus on a joint communiqué at the end of the summit. An initiative — even one that does not actually bring peace, yet is ongoing — offers a way out of this dilemma. No G20 member will say that it is against peace.”
India is therefore, “hopeful that drafting a joint communiqué with emphasis on peace is far easier than drafting one in which the talk is all about Russia’s violation of Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty. Several G20 countries will refuse to sign on to a document which dwells negatively on Russia. On the other hand, without a peace initiative to fall back on, almost all Group of Seven (G7) rich Zelenskyy backers will insist on strong references to Russia’s alleged misdeeds. Most Indian negotiators are convinced at this stage that if peace efforts get off the ground, the final summit document can be about peace in Ukraine, not about the war.”
Modi did right by telling Zelenskyy in Hiroshima that India would continue to provide humanitarian assistance to Ukraine, particularly pharmaceuticals, a critical wartime requirement.
