Medicine and airplanes have been fueling and driving Ukraine-India cooperation for decades. With bilateral trade reaching $2 billion last year, India is Ukraine’s fifth largest trade partner.
While purchasing aircrafts, machinery, and steel, this South Asian country supplies Ukraine with pharmaceuticals, fruit, tea and leather in return.
Yet modern-day cooperation still has to catch up with Soviet times. Decades ago, engineers from eastern Ukraine helped to set up the steel mills in India. India’s first and only female Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, visited Kyiv in 1982.
Cultural and educational events are also on the wane, compared to the festivals and exchanges held in the Soviet Union when socialism was a binding factor between the two states.
In his interview with the Kyiv Post, Ambassador Jyoti Swarup Pande, 59, shared his thoughts on future cooperation. Appointed in September, Pande has 37 years of diplomatic service. He worked in Brazil and Malaysia and most recently served as the ambassador to Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan.
Kyiv Post: What are the latest projects that India and Ukraine are working on together?
Jyoti Swarup Pande: A substantial part of our relations is defined by the cooperation in aviation and defense industries.
The Indian air force has a fleet of transport aircrafts from the [Kyiv-based] Antonov aviation plant. In cooperation with Antonov, we are refurbishing most of our aircrafts in Ukraine and send our personnel for training there. This project costs $400 million, and it will continue for four years.
I believe that in the near future the Indian army will buy spare parts from Ukraine to prolong the life of the heavy trucks they bought from the U.S.S.R.
The Indian community marks the 64th anniversary of independence from the United Kingdom on Kyiv’s Maidan Nezalezhnosti on Aug 15. (Yaroslav Debelyi)
KP: Please describe the Indian community in Ukraine.
JP: We have around 2,000 Indian students attending universities in Ukraine and studying mostly medicine. A substantial number of Indian pharmaceutical companies on Ukraine’s market also bring Indian employees [to work here]. Some Indians who studied in Ukraine during the Soviet times decided to stay behind and they are now mostly involved in trade and manufacturing.
Some of them decided to export Ukrainian know-how to India. For example, one businessman took to India a Ukrainian company that specializes in remote sensing, which now helps to find oil in our country. [Also], one of the stations in New Delhi metro was built by a Ukrainian construction company.
KP: Does the Indian community face any problems in Ukraine?
JP: Once they get to Ukraine, not so much. But obtaining a visa is a hurdle because Ukraine’s visa regime is very restrictive. To cite just one example, there is no tourist visa for Indians to visit Ukraine. There are only student and business visas. Moreover, when they reach Ukraine’s border immigration, [officers] are not polite to them: They grill them [with questions], threaten to turn them around and let them in reluctantly.
KP: Do you see any interest in India on the Ukrainian side?
JP: Our embassy issues 400-500 visas per week for Ukrainians who want to go to India. The number of visas goes up in winter. Direct flights from Kyiv to Goa tempt many [travelers].
Some go to India for beach holidays, while others prefer “holy tourism,” visiting Buddhist shrines. Many Ukrainian sailors go to Bombay to catch the ships they work on. Recently we noticed more and more Ukrainian dancing groups going to India to act in Indian Bollywood movies. Some Ukrainian models also work in India.
ArcelorMittal steel factory in Kryvyy Rih owned by Lakshmi Mittal, an Indian steel tycoon, is seen on March 21, 2007. (Natalia Kravchuk)
KP: Cooperation between India and Ukraine on the cultural and educational levels is not great. Will there be any change?
JP: Indeed, we don’t have a dynamic cultural and educational cooperation. But the desire has been expressed to start a proper Indian festival in Ukraine and a Ukrainian one in India. We plan it next year.
Another very important change for the better is that Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, a famous private Indian academic and cultural organization, will open its branch in Kyiv. They will have Indian cultural and language studies.
KP: Where do you eat Indian food in Kyiv?
JP: Indian restaurants are quite good here. Because their food has been somewhat adapted to the Ukrainian taste, we don’t eat such rich food at home.
Some diplomats that have been here for a long time order dishes in the Indian restaurants off the menu. Indian cooks usually know how to tailor them [to authentic taste].
India at a glance:
– Government type: federal republic of 28 states and 7 union territories
– Independence: Aug. 15, 1947 (from the United Kingdom)
– Population: 1.2 billion people.
– Per capita gross domestic product (Purchasing Power Parity): $2,930.
– Population below poverty line: 25 percent
– Official languages: Hindi, English.
– Major historical figure: Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948). He was the leading political and spiritual leader of India’s national independence movement and is honored as the father of the nation. He pioneered mass, peaceful civil disobedience to tyranny and inspired similar movements for justice worldwide.
Useful links:
Indian Embassy in Ukraine: www.indianembassy.org.ua
To learn more about Diwali: www.diwalifestival.org
Kyiv Post staff writer Kateryna Grushenko can be reached at [email protected]
Read also ‘World in Ukraine: Diwali festival of lights celebrates knowledge‘ by the author.
