Sawt Falasteen - Indian PM Modi to visit Ukraine, Poland this week

New Delhi's foreign ministry said on Monday Modi will visit Poland on Thursday before travelling on to Ukraine the next day.

Modi has trodden a delicate balance between maintaining India's historically warm ties with Russia while courting closer security partnerships with Western nations as a bulwark against regional rival China.

His government has avoided explicit condemnations of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, instead urging both sides to resolve their differences through dialogue.

The "landmark" visit by Modi will discuss "the ongoing conflict in Ukraine", Indian foreign ministry official Tanmaya Lal said.

"India has consistently advocated for diplomacy and dialogue to reach a negotiated settlement," he said.

President Volodymyr Zelensky, who will meet Modi, said on Monday this would be the Indian leader's first trip to Ukraine and that "a number of documents are also expected to be signed".

Modi's visit to Moscow in July came hours after a Russian barrage hit multiple cities across Ukraine, killing more than three dozen people and heavily damaging a children's hospital in Kyiv.

Modi was pictured hugging Putin at his country residence a day earlier, drawing condemnation from Zelensky.

India and Russia have maintained close links since the Cold War, which saw the Kremlin become a key arms provider to the South Asian country.

Russia has also become a major supplier of cut-price crude oil to India since the Ukraine conflict began, providing a much-needed export market after the imposition of Western sanctions.

That has dramatically reconfigured their economic ties, with India saving billions of dollars while bolstering Moscow's war coffers.

However, Russia's fight with Ukraine has also had a human cost for India.

New Delhi has pushed Moscow to return several of its citizens who signed up for "support jobs" with the Russian military but were later sent to fight on the frontlines in Ukraine.

At least five Indian soldiers have been killed in the conflict.

Western powers have cultivated stronger relations with India as a hedge against China, while also pressuring New Delhi to distance itself from Russia.

India is part of the Quad grouping with the United States, Japan and Australia that positions itself against China's growing influence in the Asia-Pacific region.

Modi also visited Russia in 2019 and hosted Putin in New Delhi two years later, weeks before Moscow began its offensive against Ukraine.

India has largely shied away from explicit condemnation of Russia ever since and abstained on UN resolutions targeting the Kremlin.

O.Mousa--SF-PST