On November 4, Ukraine’s Minister of Culture and Strategic Communications, Mykola Tochytskyi, held a meeting with Ravi Shankar, the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of India to Ukraine. During the meeting, they discussed the prospects for Ukrainian-Indian cooperation in the fields of culture and information.
“An important step in strengthening the friendly ties between our peoples and cultures is the Cultural Cooperation Program for 2024–2028, which was signed this August during the visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Ukraine. We are very interested in developing cooperation with India and implementing joint projects across various cultural sectors,” said the Minister.
According to the Ambassador of India to Ukraine, “cultural diplomacy is an essential component of cooperation between Ukraine and India. Collaboration in the field of culture should be mutually active, and we are ready to strengthen our relations through joint initiatives, such as Ukraine Days in India. Such events will serve as a platform for exchanging cultural values and experience. Moreover, the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) is prepared to assist in promoting cultural projects at the international level, opening up new opportunities for collaboration”.
In turn, Mykola Tochytskyi outlined key areas and projects that require support from foreign partners. In particular, these include the “Translate Ukraine” program to support the translation of Ukrainian literature, cultural projects in India under the patronage of Ukraine’s First Lady Olena Zelenska – such as the “Ukrainian Book Shelf” and Ukrainian-language audio guides in leading museums and cultural sites – as well as the “National Book Shelves in Ukrainian Libraries” project. The latter aims to decolonize the collections of Ukrainian public libraries and increase the proportion of Ukrainian translations from various languages.
“We are grateful to Indian journalists for their media support in highlighting the situation in Ukraine, especially in the cultural sector. This is very important for us. We are also interested in establishing direct cooperation between Ukrainian and Indian media companies,” added the Minister.
“We are open to collaboration, particularly regarding the promotion of Ukrainian books and the joint implementation of other cultural initiatives,” emphasized Ravi Shankar.
At the conclusion of the meeting, Mykola Tochytskyi reiterated that Ukrainian history, culture, and national identity are fundamentally different from russia’s.
“The war we are experiencing is a consequence of russia’s imperial ambitions, and russia, as the last empire in Europe and Asia, must understand that it cannot dictate the history of other countries,” concluded the Head of the MCSC.
