Modi aims to broker Black Sea food corridors

India is ready to help broker "food corridors" through the Black Sea, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said after a phone call with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday.

The announcement came on the eve of United States-mediated talks in Abu Dhabi, with Russia and Ukraine returning to the negotiating table after a nine-month pause.

Hours later, India's External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar spoke with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov.

Russia and Ukraine have attacked one another's ports this year, choking off grain and oilseed exports that feed import-dependent countries in Africa and South Asia, and leaving India short of sunflower oil.

What is India offering, why does it want the role, and can it deliver?

What did Zelenskyy and Modi say?

"India is ready to mediate in establishing food corridors, and we are counting on these efforts to continue," Zelenskyy posted on X after the call. The leaders discussed Russia's blocking of grain exports in the Black Sea, he said.

Modi did not mention food corridors or the Black Sea, but reaffirmed India's commitment to contributing "in every possible way" towards a peaceful resolution.

Jaishankar said his call with Lavrov focused on the war and "ongoing diplomatic initiatives".

What is India offering?

While New Delhi has not published a formal plan, the offer builds on proposals Indian officials floated for weeks.

During a visit to Kyiv in September, Jaishankar reportedly spoke of a potential pause on strikes against Black Sea shipping and energy infrastructure. On October 4, he said India was talking to both Russia and Ukraine about shipping safety, grain and energy exports and "non-attack possibilities".

"India has become quietly proactive of late," Praveen Donthi, senior India analyst at the International Crisis Group, told Al Jazeera.

Previously, India was "reticent … regarding a mediation role" and limited to "rhetorical calls for diplomacy and dialogue", he added. Jaishankar's September visit was a sign of stepping up, he said.

By early October, Kyiv received four ceasefire proposals from India, Turkiye, Egypt and the US.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha called India's proposal "the broadest", because it covers both the Black Sea and energy infrastructure. The US plan offers only a halt to strikes on energy facilities.

Kyiv says it will accept an energy and Black Sea truce only if the two come together. Russia has so far rejected partial ceasefires, insisting on a comprehensive peace agreement instead.

Ravi Joshi, a visiting fellow at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi and former civil servant, told DD India that "an immediate understanding or a ceasefire is important, and that's what India can talk about".

He added that insurance remains a current challenge.

"The ships are not being adequately insured. The insurers are not guaranteeing the safety of the ships," he said.
Why does India care?

The Black Sea tensions cost India directly.

On November 3, the Ministry of External Affairs said five Indian nationals had been killed in attacks on commercial vessels in the Black Sea and two more had gone missing.

India is also the world's biggest importer of vegetable oils and buys most of its sunflower oil from Russia and Ukraine. Its edible oil imports fell 7 percent in September.

Sunflower oil imports fell to 108,837 tonnes that month, the lowest since April 2022, the Reuters news agency reported. In October, a 20,000-tonne Russian cargo bound for India was cancelled because of damage to port infrastructure, and about 60,000 tonnes more were delayed.
"For India, this is a priority because this has caused fluctuations in grain prices and increases. So there's an alignment there," Maximilian Hess, a fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, told Al Jazeera.

According to Donthi, of the International Crisis Group, US President Donald Trump "has accused India of funding the Russian war efforts for buying Russian oil".

"By mediating in the war, with some concrete proposals, India stands to gain geopolitical heft and credibility that might blunt some of the unwarranted criticism it received in the recent past," Donthi said, adding: "It will add to its global prestige after having lost some sheen in the past year."