Kyiv
\nIndia\u2019s Narendra Modi has been welcomed to Ukraine\u2019s capital Kyiv by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the first visit to the country by an Indian prime minister since it gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
\nZelenskyy embraced Modi before they started talks on Friday at the Marinskyi presidential palace, and said the Indian leader\u2019s visit to Ukraine was \u201cvery friendly\u201d and \u201chistoric\u201d.
\nThe Indian prime minister is expected to discuss economic ties and cooperation in defence, science and technology, while also broaching the contentious subject of a settlement to end the war with Russia. The meeting kicked off with both leaders visiting a memorial commemorating hundreds of Ukrainian children who have been killed during more than two years of war.
\nThe Ukrainian president said on X that he and Modi had honoured \u201cthe memory of the children whose lives were taken by Russian aggression\u201d.
\nModi, who told Zelenskyy that the killing of children in conflict was not acceptable, said he had come to Ukraine with a message of peace.
\n\u201cWe have stayed away from the war with great conviction. This does not mean that we were indifferent,\u201d he told reporters, while seated alongside Zelenskyy. \u201cWe were not neutral from day one, we have taken a side, and we stand firmly for peace,\u201d he said.
\nModi also pledged his country would provide humanitarian support for Ukraine\u2019s conflict with Russia. \u201cIndia will always stand with you and will go above and beyond to support you,\u201d he said.
\nHe stated his respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty, while reiterating India\u2019s position, set out ahead of his visit, that the conflict can be resolved only through dialogue and diplomacy. However, it is unclear whether the Indian leader, seen by many in Ukraine as being too close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, could be an effective dealmaker.
\nReporting from Kyiv, Al Jazeera\u2019s Alex Gatopoulos said India would have to \u201cperform this tightrope act\u201d between the West and Russia.
\n\u201cIt is a Russian client state. The vast majority of its military equipment is Russian-made, so India cannot afford to alienate Russia either,\u201d he said.
\nIndia is the world\u2019s largest buyer of Russian arms, and has sought to capitalise on cheaper Russian oil as the United States and European countries seek to limit the Russian energy sector\u2019s access to the global marketplace via sanctions.
\nModi\u2019s meeting with Zelenskyy comes a month and a half after he was in Moscow for talks with Putin, a visit that coincided with Russian missile attacks on Ukraine that hit a children\u2019s hospital, which the Indian leader implicitly criticised during the bilateral summit.
\nModi and Putin agreed to increase bilateral trade to $100bn by 2030, increasing investments, eliminating nontariff trade barriers and using national currencies to circumvent sanctions.
\nThe meeting elicited fierce criticism from Zelenskyy, who said it was a \u201chuge disappointment and a devastating blow to peace efforts to see the leader of the world\u2019s largest democracy hug the world\u2019s most bloody criminal in Moscow on such a day\u201d.
\nAl Jazeera\u2019s Gatopoulos said Modi\u2019s visit to Moscow was intended to put himself forward as a mediator.
\n\u201cWhether that\u2019s going to be successful or not, we will tell in the coming days,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kyiv India\u2019s Narendra Modi has been welcomed to Ukraine\u2019s capital Kyiv by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the first visit to the country by an Indian prime minister since it gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Zelenskyy embraced Modi before they started talks on Friday at the Marinskyi presidential palace, and said the Indian …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":69298,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69321"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69321\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69332,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69321\/revisions\/69332"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}