How India opened a consulate in Odessa – and why it took years

When Indian foreign service officer PH Desai inaugurated his country’s consulate in Odessa in November 1962, the Black Sea port greeted the milestone with much fanfare. At the time, only three foreign governments maintained diplomatic missions anywhere in the Soviet Union outside Moscow: fellow communist nations Poland and Czechoslovakia operated consulates in Kiev, while Turkey had one in Batumi.

Local journalists covered the opening in a city celebrated for its 19th-century maritime legacy and scarred by fierce fighting during the Second World War. Addressing the press at the opening, Desai noted that three Indian companies maintained regular shipping services between Odessa and Indian ports, while vessels of the Black Sea Shipping Line frequently called at Indian ports.

Odessa carried immense strategic value for New Delhi as the port from where machinery and equipment for the expansion of the Bhilai Steel Plant were shipped to India. In the preceding decade, the absence of an on-the-ground Indian mission had created headaches. Indian merchant seamen frequently attempted to disembark during port calls, leading to tensions, as embassy files from Moscow note, when local authorities refused a few of them entry into the Soviet Union.

Opening the consulate was not easy. The process had taken several years, delayed in part...

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