India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Kyiv on Aug. 22, 2024, to meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky following a Russian missile attack that hit a children’s hospital in Ukraine one month prior. During Modi’s historic meeting, the prime minister emphasized the need for a diplomatic resolution to the conflict before more children are killed. According to reporting from Al Jazeera, Modi said at a post-meeting press conference with Zelensky, “We have stayed away from the war with great conviction. This does not mean that we were indifferent.” Modi said that his government would be committed to supplying humanitarian assistance, adding that the sanctity of territorial sovereignty must be respected.
The BBC reported that Modi met with President Vladimir Putin at The Moscow Kremlin only days before the 2024 North Atlantic Treaty Organization Summit in July. A representative from the Indian foreign ministry told Voice of America that during a phone call with President Putin post-Kyiv trip, Modi underscored the need for “sincere and practical engagement between all stakeholders.” VOA wrote that Modi spoke with President Joseph R. Biden on Aug. 26, 2024, once again expressing India’s support for direct dialogue and a peaceful, swift ending to the violence.
During a press conference on Oct. 10, 2022, ABC News reported that India’s External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankarv said, “We have been very clearly against the conflict in Ukraine. We believe that this conflict does not serve the interests of anybody. Neither the participants nor indeed the international community.”
Since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, India has continued to successfully employ that long-standing policy of non-alignment, so as not to alienate either the West or Russia; the latter of whom India is the largest arms buyer. Additionally, India has consistently abstained from voting on United Nations resolutions that criticize Russia, always stopping short of outright condemnation or blame for attacks in Ukraine. The policy of “strategic ambiguity” is when state actors and leaders deliberately create unclear stances on international conflicts to maintain security for their nation and avoid retaliation or a breakdown of allyship from other countries in the global theater.
The BBC wrote that analysts believe by preserving neutral or positive relations with the United States – barring the tricky Cold War-era distrust between India and the U.S. – and Russia, India could subsequently play an active role in negotiating steps toward peace talks. The BBC also wrote that despite “reliance on Russian military equipment,” India has made attempts to diversify its portfolio and increase domestic manufacturing of defence materials and weapons. Through a multilateral approach, India in recent years has been shoring up its position as allies to France, the United Kingdom and Germany despite Western leaders expressing standard disappointment in India’s continued “reluctance to condemn Russian aggression,” according to ABC.
Modi’s meetings with both Zelensky and Putin may speak to a larger posture of neutrality some developing nations have adopted from a renewed “nonalignment movement” beyond the Russia-Ukraine war. The Foreign Policy magazine noted that the increase of sanctions and exclusion from international trade on Russia from ‘Western democracies’ has highlighted an expanding gap between the two worlds.
Jorge Heine, a Boston University professor and former Chilean diplomat, told Foreign Policy, “The real cleavage over Ukraine is not between democracy and autocracy but between the global north and the global south.”
