Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to embark on a historic visit to Poland and war-torn Ukraine from August 21 (Wednesday) to 23, marking his first trip to Kyiv since establishing diplomatic relations more than 30 years ago. PM Modi’s important visit to Poland and Ukraine comes after his highly-publicised trip to Russia on June 8-9 amid the raging war between Moscow and Kyiv.
The Ministry of External Affairs announced on Monday that the Prime Minister will land in Warsaw on Wednesday, where he will be accorded a ceremonial welcome. He will also call on President Andrzej Sebastian Duda and will hold bilateral talks with his Polish counterpart Donald Tusk, after which he will also interact with the Indian counterpart in Poland.
“I think it’s very significant. We are really happy that Prime Minister Modi has decided to visit Poland. But we are also glad that he will be combining this visit to Poland with a visit to Ukraine, our neighbor, which is defending its borders against unlawful aggression,” Poland’s Charge d’Affaires, Sebastian Domzalski, told news agency ANI.
Why is PM Modi’s visit to Poland important?
PM Modi will be the first Indian Prime Minister to visit Poland in 45 years, after Morarji Desai in 1979. His visit coincides with the 70th anniversary of the establishment of India-Poland diplomatic relations, making it a momentous occasion. PM Modi’s talks with the Polish leadership are expected to include defence cooperation and boosting ties in information technology, pharmaceutical, and automotive manufacturing.
Poland is one of the most important countries in Central Europe, being the sixth-largest economy within the European Union. Warsaw will also hold the next Presidency of the Council of the European Union. The bilateral trade between the two countries is estimated to be $6 billion, making Poland the largest trading partner of India in Central and Eastern Europe. India has investments worth $3 billion in Poland, while the latter has invested $1 billion.
As per the MEA, a number of Indian companies have active business presence in Poland in sectors ranging from IT to pharmaceuticals to manufacturing to farm vehicles to electronics, steel, metals and chemicals. while Poland has 30 companies having a business presence in India. The Indian community in Poland has also increased to 25,000, including 5,000 students. It is also worth recalling that India had a “successful” rescue mission called “Operation Ganga” during the start of the Russia-Ukraine war in 2022. At that time, Poland had played a crucial role in the evacuation of more than 4,000 Indian students.
“One of the unique bonds between our countries relates to the time in 1940s, during World War II, when more than 6,000 Polish women and children found refuge in two princely states in India, Jamnagar and Kolhapur. As you may be aware, Jam Sahib of Navanagar had provided shelter to more than 1,000 Polish children, and others were offered refuge in Kolhapur,” said Secretary (West) Tanmaya Lal during a press briefing.
The significance of PM Modi’s visit to Ukraine
Most eyes would be on PM Modi’s visit to Kyiv, which comes over a month after his trip to arch-nemesis Russia, where both sides sought to boost bilateral trade and cooperation in areas ranging from nuclear energy to medicine. Modi would become the first Indian leader ever to visit Ukraine after diplomatic relations were established in 1992 to renew his position that only dialogue and diplomacy will resolve the conflict.
PM Modi will visit Kyiv after an invitation by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who termed his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin “a huge disappointment”. The PM’s engagements will touch a range of aspects of bilateral ties including political, trade, economic, investments, education, cultural, people-to-people exchanges, humanitarian assistance and others. PM Modi and Zelenskyy met at the G7 Summit in Italy, where the former said India is eager to further cement bilateral relations with Ukraine and advocated a peaceful solution to the ongoing conflict.
Over the last few years, India has resisted pressure from the West to halt oil purchases from its traditional partner Russia. India has emerged as the biggest buyer of Russian seaborne oil sold at a discount as Western entities shun purchases due to a raft of sanctions imposed on Russian over its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. India had also previously relied on Ukraine for shipments of cooking oil, but was forced to shift to Russia after the war as domestic edible oil prices climbed to record highs.
However, India has maintained its diplomatic tightrope walk by providing several consignments of humanitarian assistance to Ukraine since March 2022 and expressing concerns over threats of nuclear war issued by Russian leaders. “This is not a zero-sum game,” said Lal, saying India’s relations with Russia and Ukraine stand on their own. PM Modi’s visit to the two countries can be seen as an attempt to boost India’s diplomatic ties with Europe to strengthen economic, cultural and political relations.
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