Ukraine and India, a historical ally of Russia, hold talks to strengthen ties

NEW DELHI (AP) — India’s foreign minister held talks Friday with his Ukrainian counterpart, who was visiting to strengthen bilateral ties and cooperation with New Delhi, which considers Russia a historic ally from the Cold War-era.

Indian foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said in a post on the social media platform X that he and Dmytro Kuleba discussed “the ongoing conflict and its wider ramifications,” and said the two would work together to boost relations between their countries.

“India and Ukraine have been traditional friends, but I think there is much more that we can do and should do, not only in the interests of our nations, but also in the interest of global development and security architecture,” Kuleba said Friday. “We will be looking forward to restoring what had existed before the large scale invasion of Russia in Ukraine began.”

Kuleba told Indian media Thursday that he wanted to discuss Ukraine’s peace formula while in New Delhi, and encourage India to play a bigger role in helping end Russia’s war in Ukraine.

“India can play a very important role in bringing together more nations from the Global South,” Kuleba said in an interview with New Delhi Television. He said India could be particularly helpful due to its close relationship with Russia. “It means India can influence the way Russia behaves,” he said, but also remarked that New Delhi’s relationship with Moscow is based on the past, while the one with Ukraine “has more of a future.”

Kuleba’s visit comes a week after Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladmir Putin, whom India has so far avoided criticizing over the war in Ukraine. Instead, New Delhi has stressed the need for