Ukraine-India relations recently reached a deeper level with President Viktor Yanukovych’s Dec. 9-12 state visit to India, the first by a Ukrainian leader in a decade.
Although then-Indian President Abdul Kalam did visit Kyiv in 2005, a number of issues between the two countries have piled up since then. Among them: troubles that Indian pharmaceutical companies experience in Ukraine and difficulties Indians face in getting visas.
Rajiv Chander, India’s ambassador to Ukraine, took an active part in the recent visit of President Viktor Yanukovych to India. In his interview with the Kyiv Post, he talked about the progress made.
Kyiv Post: How would you describe India-Ukraine relations?
Rajiv Chander: Excellent and improving. The strongest ties are between the people – that is people-to-people contacts. We have a very strong growing economic relationship. We have reached $3 billion in trade this year. We have long-standing defense cooperation. We had been cooperating for the last 30-40 years. (Strong ties also include) science, technology and space cooperation.
KP: What results did the recent visit of Yanukovych to India deliver?
RC: I think it was a landmark visit. Both leaders agreed on a joint statement which underlines the fact that we now have a comprehensive partnership. We have signed the five agreements: defense, space, nuclear, standardization of our products and also legal assistance. For example, the defense cooperation agreement – earlier it was just trade…now we’re looking at research and development, export to third countries, transfer of technologies and joint production. The fact that the Ukrainian president was visiting after 10 years, he brought along not only an official delegation, which was very high-powered one, but also we had the defense minister, the foreign minister and a couple of other ministers and heads of other regions also, plus the business delegation — I think it did attract a lot of attention.
KP: What is the reason for such seldom state visits between India and Ukraine?
RC: One of the reasons could have been that you had a frequent change of government in Ukraine. If you recall the period of 2005 to 2009, there were two or three changes of government, frequents changes of ministers. Every government comes and takes some time to settle down and then you establish your contacts and look for (countries) to visit.
KP: What’s the essence of problems that Indian pharmaceutical companies have in Ukraine?
RC: What happened is that there have been changes in the legislation of the Ukraine health sector. Nowadays there’s a requirement of a GMP (certificate of quality). (But) for example, if your manufacturing process has been certified in the U.S. and Europe and if Ukraine also recognizes European standards, then why should it be that we should go (through the) process of getting a certificate all over again? The legislation is one, second is there is a new registration procedure. In fact, the joint statement issued at the level of the president (of Ukraine) and the prime minister (of India) talks about the positive contribution of the Indian pharmaceutical industry to the Ukrainian health sector… so we do hope that that message will (reach) those who make policy and those who implement this policy on the ground.
KP: Is India concerned about political persecutions going on in Ukraine and was this question raised during the visit?
RC: We believe it is an internal matter of the country. We have no position on the matter. Other countries can take whatever position they do, coming from where they are. The position we have is that it is for the Ukrainian people to decide on what is best for them. And if they feel that there are certain issues which concern them, then the polls are the way to go. That is something I believe has happened recently. (There was) no raising (of human rights issues during the visit.)
KP: Do Indians still experience troubles getting Ukrainian visas? If so, why?
RC: (They do) and even for short visits. This is what surprises us because we in fact issue something like 500 visas for Ukrainians to go and work in India. So it’s not as if it’s only one-way traffic. And when we talk about businessmen not getting visas, it seems to us to be very strange. It is difficult to imagine that any businessman would want to use Ukraine as a transit point to go to (the EU) because they can go straight. It’s easier to get Schengen visas for the leading (Indian) businessmen than it is to get Ukrainian. We have been assured that this is receiving the legitimate attention of the Ukrainian authorities.
KP: Most Ukrainians know very little of India, aside from Goa. What do Indians know about Ukraine?
RC: I would say that, on both sides, perceptions of each other seem to be locked into a time frame which is 20 years old. While India has problems, we also have an IT sector which is exporting almost $70 billion worth of exports. We have a pharmaceutical sector which is about to grow to $20 billion by the end of this decade. These are areas we need to inform each other. If we persist in stereotypes, that is not going to benefit anybody. One of the main tasks that we see is to promote these people-to-people contacts because once you go and see for yourself that is more convincing than I as an ambassador or anybody else can tell you.
INDIA AT A GLANCE
Territory: 3,287,263 square kilometers
Population: 1.2 billion people as of July 2012
Government type: federal republic
Head of government: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh (since 2004)
GDP (purchasing power parity): $4.421 trillion
GDP per capita (PPP): $3,700
Main industries: textiles, chemicals, food processing, steel, transportation equipment, cement, mining, petroleum, machinery, software, pharmaceuticals.
Ukrainian-Indian economic relations
Trade: $3 billion in 2012.
Exports from India to Ukraine: pharmaceutical products, tobacco, coffee, tea, spices, cosmetics, toiletries, silk, etc.
Exports from Ukraine to India: chemicals, fertilizers, ferrous metals, power equipment (including for nuclear reactors), steel, aluminum, etc.
India’s investment in Ukraine: $18.3 million as of October 2011
Ukraine’s investment in India:
$1.08 million as of June 2012
Sources: CIA World Factbook, State Statistics Committee
Kyiv Post staff writer Maryna Irkliyenko can be reached at [email protected].
