The coronavirus shook the world with death and destruction in 2020. But despite the global trauma, India’s Ambassador to Ukraine Partha Satpathy marvels at how well some things held up — including the bilateral relationship between Ukraine and India.
In the confusing early stages of the pandemic, when Ukraine and India each adopted hard lockdowns like many other nations, fears were running high.
The immediate task faced by the Indian Embassy in Kyiv was a humanitarian one: 15,000 Indian students, primarily studying in Ukraine to become physicians, needed to get home quickly as borders closed. They also needed masks, sanitizers — and reliable information. The embassy stepped in.
Satpathy said that India is satisfied overall with its response to the coronavirus, which included the embassy’s efforts in Kyiv. “We went into strict lockdown and forced contact tracing to make sure the disease did not spread,” he said. He also thinks that Ukraine did “reasonably well” with a similar strategy early on. The vindication came with lower infection rates and fewer deaths per capita than in many other countries.
Indian Ambassador to Ukraine Partha Satpathy speaks with the Kyiv Post on Feb. 2, 2021, in the Indian Embassy in Kyiv. (Volodymyr Petrov)
Trade holds up
When it comes to the economic relationship between the two nations, Ukraine and India hardly skipped a beat in 2020, despite recessions in both countries triggered by COVID‑19. India’s economy shrank about 7% while Ukraine held its losses to 5%.
Bilateral trade between the two nations reached $3 billion in 2019, heavily in favor of Ukrainian exports. When the 2020 figures are in, Satpathy expects that the trade volume will reach 95% of the previous year’s figures. It took some work to keep the trade up, he said, but both sides found ways to remove bottlenecks and other delays that were caused by the pandemic.
And, while Satpathy chafed at not being able to conduct as much personal diplomacy as he would in a normal year, he still found time to meet in person with Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, National Security and Defense Council secretary Oleksiy Danilov and other top officials.
The two nations — one of 1.3 billion people and the other of just 40 million people — try hard to find ways to overcome their sometimes profound differences. Those differences include India’s refusal to sanction or even criticize Russia for its seven-year war against Ukraine, during which 14,000 people have been killed, 1.5 million displaced and 7 percent of the nation’s territory — the Crimean peninsula and parts of the eastern Donbas — seized.
The common language, Satpathy said, between Ukraine and India is democracy and needs. In Ukraine’s case, India is a voracious consumer of agricultural and other exports; in India’s case, Ukraine is keen on vaccines and pharmaceutical drugs, among other goods.
Still, both have some distance to travel in becoming attractive investment destinations. They are nearly identical — India ranks 63rd, Ukraine ranks 64th — in the most recent annual World Bank Ease of Doing Business survey.
India’s vital vaccines
In conquering the coronavirus, India is playing a key role in producing and distributing vaccines across the world. While some nations are practicing “vaccine nationalism,” and forbidding supplies to be exported, India is playing a different game. It’s engaged in “vaccine diplomacy,” spreading hundreds of thousands of doses already to such neighbors as Bhutan, Nepal and Sri Lanka.
India this year will spend $5 billion for vaccines alone and must tackle the huge logistical challenge of vaccinating as many of its 1.3 billion people as possible with drug supplies that require cold storage every step of the way to remain effective. Satpathy said six vaccines are in the pipeline for approval and two are already on the market. India is home to the Serum Institute, the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer.
Indians, he said, are generally receptive to being vaccinated, an issue that remains controversial in some societies, including Ukraine, where there is strong resistance.
Satpathy said that as supplies and choices of vaccines increase, India will follow its guiding philosophy that “the whole world is a family,” and it is the nation’s obligation to share vaccines as much as possible, especially with poorer nations lacking the vaccine production capabilities of India.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres last month singled India out for praise.
“I would like to say how much we count on India,” Guterres was quoted as saying. “And we strongly hope that India will have all the instruments that are necessary to play a major role in making sure that a global vaccination campaign becomes possible. I think that the production capacity of India is one of the best assets the world has today, and I hope the world understands that it must be fully used.”
India has thus far vaccinated more than 3 million of its citizens but hopes to vaccinate 300 million by August. Ukraine, meanwhile, has yet to receive any vaccines. But Satpathy said that Ukraine will soon be on the receiving end of 8 million doses of vaccines through the World Health Organization’s COVAX alliance.
Satpathy said that, in countries with poor infrastructure, vaccines must be developed that are easily transportable. He said India believes that global victory over the pandemic is only possible “when everybody is able to be vaccinated at that threshold level when the disease is no longer a problem. If people are not healthy, everything is affected: trade, commerce, education, tourism — you name it.”
He described India’s philosophy to medical care with alliteration: “access, availability, affordability.”
Return to normalcy
Satpathy hopes that the pandemic will subside enough for “normal diplomacy” to resume in the second half of 2021. “I’m quite optimistic about this scenario,” he said. “This will happen… Ukrainian health authorities are actively searching for procurement for vaccines. Hopefully, they will have supplies soon. Infections rates are falling now. Vaccines are rolling out.”
For Satpathy, a singer, events will allow him to resume concerts. Like many people in the world, he had so many plans that had to be cancelled in 2020. India scrapped a planned Bollywood in Kyiv film festival, a textiles exhibition, dances, and a traditional pharmaceutical trade show.
“Hopefully his year we will do” some of these events, he said.
Despite the reduced personal meetings, Satpathy was able in 2020 to accomplish one of his goals for his ambassadorship: Unveiling a statue of Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948), revered as the father of independent India, in Fomin Botanical Garden near the University Metro Station. The ceremony took place on what would have been Gandhi’s Oct. 2 birthday. It’s the first and so far only statue of Gandhi in Ukraine.
“I’ve always had a personal desire to see him here in the city,” Satpathy said. “It’s a way for us to spread his message of non-violence, peaceful co-existence, and the understanding of the value of freedom.” He said Kyiv authorities “were very welcoming” and the unveiling “was a positive event” in bilateral relations, although conducted “under social distancing norms.”
Praise for Ukraine
Despite all the challenges of 2020, Satpathy believes Ukraine’s authorities redeemed themselves in upholding democracy.
“Governance has been boldly visible. This has been a bit reassuring to the people and to observers. The levers of governance are effectively being implemented.
“Challenges to democracy are always there. Freedom as a concept is so valuable yet so fragile.”
In an apparent reference to the Constitutional Court, which last year nullified key anti-corruption institutions and laws, Satpathy acknowledged that Ukraine’s “institutions of democracy displayed signs where you began to question them. Like in any good democracy, the responses evolved. What I found useful from the leadership is the desire to tackle these challenges.”
“Ukraine managed to do reasonably well. I’m optimistic about this country because this country is practicing democracy. Things are transparent. You can report on things which go wrong. You can applaud the government for things that go well.”
See also: Indian ambassador: Businesses see opportunities opening up in Ukraine
