Sandeep Dikshit
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, August 29
India has stepped up diplomacy with countries that have drifted away from Russia, but were once a part of the Soviet Union or the Warsaw Pact. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar today arrived in Hungary after a round of talks in Poland where a joint statement elicited a commitment to jointly combat terrorism, including cross-border terrorism. Hungary and Poland along with Czech Republic and Slovakia form the Visegrad Group.
In tune with this approach, Vice President Venkaiah Naidu earlier this month travelled to Lithuania, Estonia and Estonia that are collectively called the Baltic States. These three countries were part of the Soviet Union from 1940 till its break-up in 1991 after which they became viscerally opposed to the successor country Russia.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi broke the ice with Ukraine, another country at odds with Russia. On August 1, he had a telephonic conversation with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Officially, India's engagement with these countries is not of recent vintage, but what is new is the level and intensity of recent engagements. For instance, PM Modi congratulated Zelensky nearly four months after he won a landslide victory in the Ukrainian elections.
The six countries that Indian VIPs have touched this month have a reservoir of high technologies in several areas, including defence. More important, they are out of the reach of Pakistan. This has enabled India to elicit statements on combating cross-border terrorism which are interpreted as a broadside against Pakistan.
While Jaishankar visited two of the Visegrad countries, high-level engagements with another constituent, the Czech Republic, took place late last year with a visit by President Ram Nath Kovind. Czech Republic PM Andrej Babis paid a reciprocal visit in January this year. The fourth, Slovakia was a partner country at an expo in India.
Now, there is talk of a visit by the Ukrainian President to India which was considered unfeasible in view of Kiev's west-baked running feud with Moscow.
Besides the immediate purpose of touching base with Visegrad Group and Baltic States that are usually in penumbra of India's diplomatic outreach and have been wooed by China, the close contacts help India and these countries transact mutually beneficial arrangements at the international level. For instance, Slovakia supported Indian nominees to International Telecommunications Union, International Tribunal for the Law of Sea and International Court of Justice. Slovakia is supporting India's candidature for a non-permanent seat in UNSC for the 2021 term while India has promised to reciprocate for the 2028 term.
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