Sawt Falasteen - India's Modi urges peace ahead of historic Ukraine visit

Modi is expected to use his landmark visit, the first from a premier of India to Kyiv, to campaign for a "peaceful" solution to the grinding conflict that started with Russia's attack on Ukraine.

The Indian government has avoided explicit condemnations of Russia's invasion, instead urging both sides to settle their differences through dialogue.

"It is India's strong belief that no problem can be resolved on a battlefield," Modi said in Poland, a staunch ally of neighbouring Ukraine and a key transit point for leaders boarding trains to Kyiv.

Modi added his country supported "dialogue and diplomacy for restoration of peace and stability as soon as possible" and denounced "the loss of innocent lives in any conflict".

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk welcomed Modi and his delegation at the seat of government, with flags of both countries hoisted outside the building and their anthems played by the military band.

"History has taught our nations the importance of respecting the rules, respecting borders, territorial integrity," Tusk said as he spoke to reporters alongside the Indian leader.

Tusk also added that Modi "reaffirmed his willingness to commit himself personally to a peaceful, just, quick end to the war".

After the talks, Modi laid a wreath at a war memorial in central Warsaw and held talks with Polish President Andrzej Duda on "boosting commercial and cultural linkages" between the countries, he said on X (former Twitter).

The Indian leader is expected to leave the Polish capital for Ukraine later Thursday.

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.

"As a friend and partner, we hope for an early return of peace and stability in the region," Modi said in a statement published Wednesday before his departure for Poland.

In Kyiv, Modi will hold talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and "share perspectives on peaceful resolution of the ongoing Ukraine conflict," the statement added.

- 'Drastic expansion' -

On Wednesday, Modi commemorated an Indian maharaja who sheltered Polish children during World War II, laying flowers at the marble lotus-crowned monument erected in Warsaw in honour of the maharaja.

In a little-known story linking the two nations, the maharaja hosted Polish children in what is now Gujarat -- Modi's home state where he was chief minister before launching national political career.

The Indian leader announced a youth exchange programme named after the maharaja, under which 20 Polish young people would be invited to India each year.

"We are finally starting to have the right level of political and diplomatic relations," Polish deputy foreign minister Wladyslaw Teofil Bartoszewski said about Modi's visit, first in 45 years by an Indian prime minister.

He said Warsaw was counting on cooperation with India in "in the agricultural sector, in the IT sector, in the security sector, in the new technology sector, especially green technology".

Modi on Wednesday delivered a speech in Hindi to the Indian community in Warsaw, promising "a drastic expansion of Indian economy in coming years".

He is expected to meet with Leszek Balcerowicz, a former Polish finance minister and free market pioneer who steered Poland's economic transition from communism to capitalism in early 1990s.

According to the Indian Embassy, Modi will also meet captains of kabaddi teams -- a tag-meets-rugby contact team sport rooted in Indian mythology and said to date back 5,000 years.

X.Habash--SF-PST