'Tightrope walk' for India: Ukraine's Honorary Consul on India’s diplomatic ties with Russia and the West

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Honorary Consul of Ukraine in India Kamal K Singh on Saturday said it would be a “tightrope walk’ for New Delhi to maintain diplomatic relations with Russia and the US, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“It is an unfortunate and blatant aggression by the Russians, challenging the sovereignty of a country. But, for India it is a tightrope walk as the challenge is to maintain diplomatic relations with both Russia and the US,” Singh, who is based in Mumbai, told PTI over phone.

He said there was nothing wrong in India’s stand of “urging for a peaceful resolution” of the Russia-Ukraine stand-off, as New Delhi has to maintain “a diplomatic balance with an old friend and the West’s superpower economies”.

India had on Friday abstained on a UN Security Council resolution by the US that “deplores in the strongest terms” Russia’s “aggression" against Ukraine, and called for immediate cessation of hostilities, asserting that dialogue is the only answer to settling the dispute.

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a special military operation in Ukraine on Thursday, launching multiple attacks on several areas in central and eastern Ukraine, drawing widespread condemnation and sanctions from several countries, including the US.

Singh, however, expressed doubt over the efficacy of the sanctions, contending that “Russia is a strong country”.

He also hailed India’s efforts to evacuate its nationals stranded in Ukraine. Around 16,000 Indians, mainly students, were stuck in Ukraine, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla had said on February 24.

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