New Delhi: “I wonder if Indians know that every second bottle of sunflower oil they buy in the store comes from Ukraine? Or that the engines of the carrier rocket used for the successful Chandrayaan-3 moon mission were designed in Ukraine and built in India in cooperation with Ukrainian manufacturers?” rued Oleksandr Polishchuk, the Ukrainian ambassador to India.
In an exclusive interview with ThePrint earlier this month, Polishchuk conveyed in written communication that the scale of “bilateral economic cooperation” between India and Ukraine was “much better” before the war between Russia and Ukraine broke out.
In 2021-22, India imported $2.1 billion worth of sunflower, safflower or cottonseed oil (HS Code: 1512) from Ukraine – the largest in terms of value of import in the year in this category, according to data published by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
Russia was a distant second, with Russian imports to India of the same goods weighing in at $479 million in the corresponding period.
Data from the ministry also shows that India’s imports of these oils from Ukraine declined in 2022-23, following the Russian invasion of the former USSR country on 24 February 2022.
India imported $604 million worth of sunflower, safflower or cottonseed oil from Ukraine in 2022-23 — a 71 percent drop compared to the previous year.
Russian imports of the same, however, increased during this period by 86 percent to $894 million. An increase in imports of these goods from other countries made up for the shortfall of imports from Ukraine, namely Argentina (by 188 percent to $746.26 million), Bulgaria (by 947 percent to $243.75 million), Romania (by 1,127 percent to $274.68 million) and Türkiye (by 743,426 percent to $193.32 million).
In April of this year, in Uganda, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar highlighted how India faced difficulties importing edible oils, especially sunflower oil, in the wake of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
“What was a less noticed story was actually the problems which a country like India faced in terms of edible oil because we were big importers of sunflower oil from Ukraine,” he was quoted as saying.
However, the drop in imports of edible oils from Ukraine indicates India’s search for alternative suppliers, including Latin American countries such as Argentina, impacting its economic ties with Ukraine.
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Call for Modi to visit Kyiv
Polishchuk said a visit by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Kyiv would confirm India’s role as a messenger of peace across the world, keeping in spirit of the Prime Minister’s clarion call of “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam” or “the world is one family”.
Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam was also the theme of India’s G20 presidency during 2023 – “One Earth, One Family, One Future”.
“I am convinced that the visit to Kyiv of the leader of the Global South, Honourable Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi, will receive a wide global publicity and appreciation. It will be a confirmation of India’s leading role in establishing peace in the whole world. Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam,” Polishchuk told ThePrint.
“At the same time, we need to return the intensity of interaction between our political leadership. The last visit of the President of Ukraine to India was in 2012. Since 2005, the President of India has not visited Ukraine,” he said.
This year, however, saw some interaction between the political leadership of the two countries.
Modi met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan, while Ukraine’s First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Emine Dzhaparova visited Delhi in April.
Polishchuk pointed out that a number of world leaders including the Presidents of the US, France, Slovakia, Greece, Poland and the EU, to name a few, have all visited Ukraine since the outbreak of war.
“During this time, the Presidents of the USA, France, Slovakia, Greece, Turkey, Guatemala, Finland, Czech Republic, Estonia, Moldova, Romania, Portugal, Germany, Hungary, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Switzerland, Indonesia, South Africa, South Korea, Senegal, Guinea Bissau, Zambia, Comoros Islands (visited Kyiv),” he said.
“The President of Ukraine also hosted in Kyiv prime ministers of the UK, Canada, Japan, Spain, Iceland, Denmark, Netherlands, Slovenia, Croatia, Norway, Sweden, Ireland, Albania, Montenegro, Luxembourg, Australia, Belgium, Egypt, Qatar,” the ambassador added.
Polishchuk also explained how Zelenskyy has called on world leaders to visit Ukraine to witness the “consequences” of Russian aggression first-hand. However, despite no visit from Modi to Ukraine so far, Polishchuk added that Ukraine is grateful for India’s support till date.
“We are grateful for India’s support of our struggle for independence. And we highly appreciate India’s permanent involvement in the implementation of President Zelenskyy’s Peace Formula. Thousands of Ukrainians received targeted humanitarian aid from India,” he told ThePrint.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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