No scope for controversy in PM Modi's historic Ukraine Visit

India shouldn't be averse to holding the next peace conference but not on Zelenskyy's terms and Russia must be present.

- SURENDRA KUMAR

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's much hyped, much anticipated and much talked about visit to the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on 23 August has triggered an unnecessary and unproductive war of words on social media as well as in media in spite of its historic symbolism. PM Modi became the first Prime Minister of India to visit Ukraine since its birth that too when it's engaged in an intense war with Russia and took an arduous journey of nearly 10 hours from the Polish border. This bold endeavour itself ought to be applauded. Accusation from usual quarters that the visit was a pursuit for photo opportunities sounds juvenile. Does the manner in which he was received during his state visit to Washington or at the G-7 Summit in Hiroshima or at the ASEAN and South East Asia Summits last year and how he chaired the G-20 Summit in September last year suggest he needs photo-ops? Whether his detractors like it or not, at present, PM Modi is the senior-most and politically more stable leader in the democratic world than the US and French Presidents, the British, Canadian, Japanese and Australian PMs and the Chancellor of Germany, and enjoys much higher approval rating than them. He is a recognised global leader.