Ukraine Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba to visit India on Thursday

Ukraine's Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba will arrive here on Thursday on his maiden visit to India amid efforts to seek a peaceful resolution to the over two-year-old Russia-Ukraine conflict.

His visit comes at the invitation of External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in a statement on Wednesday.

During his visit, Kuleba will have ''a number of engagements, including official meetings with External Affairs Minister and Deputy NSA to discuss matters pertaining to the bilateral partnership and cooperation on regional and global issues of mutual interest,'' it said. He is also expected to interact with the business community.

On March 25, the Ukrainian foreign minister had posted a video on X and said that he would pay his first ever visit to India.

The video, posted on a day India celebrated Holi, showed him standing in front of a statue of Mahatma Gandhi in Kyiv, and also had visuals of celebrations of Holi, along with archival footage of Gandhi. ''Today, India celebrates Holi, the most beautiful and colorful spring holiday. I wish everyone a happy Holi! Standing here in Kyiv, in front of Mahatma Gandhi's monument, I am also pleased to announce that this week I will pay my first ever visit to India,'' Kuleba posted on X.

In the video, he also said, ''My visit will further strengthen our relations''.

Terming Ukraine and India as two ''big democracies'', Kuleba had said he was ''ceratin that we are set to be good partners and friends''.

In his short video, he invoked Gandhi and emphasised on the idea of ''freedom and independence''.

He also mentioned about the recent telephone call between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Prime Minister Modi on March 20 had held separate conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Zelenskyy and asserted that dialogue and diplomacy were the way forward for the resolution of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Modi had spoken to Putin over telephone to congratulate him for winning a fifth term in office in the recent elections, and followed it up with a phone call to Zelenskyy to convey India's ''consistent support'' for all efforts for peace and bringing an early end to the ongoing conflict. During the telephone conversation, the Ukrainian President had thanked India for its support for his country's sovereignty and said that it would be important for Kyiv to see New Delhi attend the inaugural Peace Summit in Switzerland.

Zelenskyy had hailed India's continued humanitarian assistance for the people of Ukraine as the two leaders had discussed ways to further strengthen their bilateral partnership in various spheres.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)