After a gap of four years, India and Ukraine are set to begin a new phase of exchanges which is likely to warm up political, military and diplomatic ties.
Speaking to The Hindu , senior Ukrainian diplomatic sources confirmed that Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin is likely to visit India soon even as the Heavy Industries Minister Anant Geete undertook a visit to the country last week.
“Mr. Geete, who was accompanied by representatives of Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited, Heavy Engineering Corporation Ltd., Hindustan Machine Tools, held wideranging talks covering trade, economic, investment and industrial cooperation,” the diplomat said.
The visit of the Indian Minister breaks a gap in bilateral exchanges that had formed due to the ongoing violence in eastern Ukraine. India had evacuated citizens from Ukraine in 2014 as the disturbance intensified in the region.
The last major visit from Ukraine was by President Viktor Yanukovych who visited Delhi and met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2012. However, another problem in bilateral ties was Ukraine’s military ties with Pakistan. Despite the hurdles, an initial dialogue was held in June when Ukraine’s First Deputy Secretary of the Council for National Security and Defence met with senior officials on the sidelines of March 28-31 “DefExpo-India 2016” in Goa.
Military modernisationThe diplomat said the ongoing round of exchanges were explored during the visit of Secretary (West) Sujata Mehta who was in Kyiv in June.
Ukraine’s diplomatic importance had been growing also due to the rising profile of the country in multilateral platforms. Ukraine is a member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) and a non-permanent member with two-year term at the U.N. Security Council.
The diplomat indicated that Ukraine is interested in supporting India’s military modernisation plans and the visit of Mr. Klimkin is likely to take up several key projects in aviation and space research.
