Relics of 17th century queen and India’s outreach to Georgia in diplomatic tit-for-tat to Russia

Jaishankar’s stopover in Tbilisi on his way back to New Delhi from Moscow was a tit-for-tat response to Russia

A casket with a 17th century queen’s relics is at the centre of India’s outreach to Georgia as External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar flew from Moscow to Tbilisi on Friday in a diplomatic tit-for-tat to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who had also travelled from New Delhi to Islamabad in April.

Jaishankar handed over to the spiritual leader of Georgian Orthodox Church, Ilia II, a casket containing the relics of St. Queen Ketevan, who was tortured to death in 1614 for refusing to shun Christianity to embrace Islam. The brief ceremony at the airport in Tbilisi was attended by Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili.

“Warmly welcomed in Tbilisi by FM @Dzalkaliani. Blessed to hand over the holy relics of St. Queen Ketevan to the people of Georgia. An emotional moment...” Jaishankar posted on Twitter, tagging Georgian Foreign Minister David Zalkaliani.

Jaishankar’s was the first visit by an Indian External Affairs Minister to Tbilisi after Georgia declared independence from Soviet Union in April 1991 – a few months before the dissolution of the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics).

Queen Ketevan was canonised by the Georgian Orthodox Church a few years after her death at Shiraz in Iran in 1624.

The relics of Queen Ketevan were found at the St. Augustine Convent in Old Goa in 2005. They are believed to have been brought to Goa in 1627 and interred in St. Augustine Complex. The Archaeological Survey of India got the CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology in Hyderabad to carry out the DNA analysis that confirmed the authenticity of the relics.

“Delighted to welcome my Indian counterpart @DrSJaishankar on his first visit to Georgia, who has brought the relics of Georgia's Queen Ketevan. This visit is to definitely play a huge role in strengthening ties between our countries and upgrade our relations to a completely new level,” tweeted Zalkaliani.

New Delhi used the External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar’s visit to Tbilisi to send out a message to Moscow.

Russia has a strained relation with Georgia and ties between the two nations worsened after a brief war in 2008. The war ended with Russia supporting secession of South Ossetia and Abkhazia from Georgia. Tbilisi, however, never recognised South Ossetia and Abkhazia as separate entities. Neither did most of the members of the United Nations, except Russia, Syria, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Nauru.

Georgia severed its diplomatic relations with Russia in the same year. Jaishankar’s stopover in Tbilisi on his way back to New Delhi from Moscow was a tit-for-tat response by India to Russia.

Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister, had on April 6 and 7 this year visited New Delhi and Islamabad respectively. Moscow apparently sought to send out a message to New Delhi by clubbing his visits to India and Pakistan.

New Delhi has been conveying its concerns to Moscow over increasing Russia-Pakistan cooperation, particularly in the defence sector. Russia too has been peeved over India’s growing defence relations with the United States as well as its decision to join the rest in the move to upgrade the Quad to the level of the Heads of Government.

Russia has long been the largest supplier of military hardware to India and has been maintaining a low-key relationship with Pakistan.

But with the changes in the geo-political landscape and in the wake of New Delhi’s growing ties with Washington D.C. since the landmark 2008 civil nuclear agreement, Moscow too started responding to Islamabad’s overtures to improve bilateral relations. They started discussing the sale of Russian Mi-35 attack helicopters to Pakistan in 2014 and the delivery of the choppers purportedly began in 2018, although New Delhi had conveyed to Moscow its concerns over the deal. Russia also inked a defence cooperation agreement with Pakistan in November 2015 and the two nations had the first joint military drill in September-October, 2016 – just weeks after India signed the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement with the US.

Lavrov used his visit to New Delhi on April 6 to convey Russia’s unease over India’s engagement with Japan, Australia and the US in the ‘Quad’ – a coalition, which the four nations forged to build a bulwark of democratic nations to counter China in the Indo-Pacific region. He said during a news conference in Islamabad on April 7 that Russia would provide more ‘special’ military equipment to Pakistan and hold more bilateral wargames both in the mountains as well as in the Arabian Sea.

Jaishankar had a meeting with Lavrov in Moscow before flying to Tbilisi on Friday. He and Zalkaliani, the Georgian Foreign Minister, will meet in Tbilisi on Saturday and exchange views on issues of regional and global interest, apart from reviewing bilateral relations. He will also unveil the newly installed statue of Mahatma Gandhi in Tbilisi.

In 2017, at the request of the Georgian Government, India sent the relics of Queen Ketevan for an exhibition for six months in Georgia. The relics were personally received by Ilia II, the Catholicos-Patriarch of Georgia, along with many Georgians on September 23, 2017. The loan of the holy relics was extended for another six months and was returned to India on September 30, 2018 after being put on display in different churches across Georgia.

Tbilisi, however, has been requesting New Delhi for permanent transfer of the holy relics. The Government of India now accepted the request and gifted a part of the holy relics to the Government and people of Georgia.

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