Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, arrives in Poland on Wednesday for a two-day visit. On Friday he will travel on to Ukraine to meet President Volodymyr Zelensky. The visit to Poland will mainly focus on economic co-operation: the country is India’s largest trading partner in central and eastern Europe. Yet it is the visit to Ukraine, the first by a sitting Indian prime minister, that will be watched closely by most observers.

The trip comes six weeks after Mr Modi travelled to Russia, where he was pictured hugging President Vladimir Putin on the same day as a Russian strike on Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, hit a children’s hospital . Mr Modi implicitly rebuked Mr Putin for the attack the next day, but the juxtaposition still prompted outrage. Speculation that Mr Modi’s visit to Kyiv is a sign that India is preparing to mediate in Russia’s war in Ukraine is probably misplaced. His first job will be to mend fences.

In some respects Moldovans have it rough. The landlocked former Soviet republic is one of Europe’s poorest countries and has high levels of corruption. Transnistria, in the east, is a pro-Russian separatist enclave that is exploited by smugglers. Russia’s invasion of neighbouring Ukraine stirred fears that Moldova could be dragged into war.

In response Moldova has intensified efforts to huddle up to western Europe. It has found a powerful backer in Germany, whose chancellor, Olaf Scholz, visits on Wednesday. In 2022 Germany initiated the Moldova Support Platform to boost the economy. It has also backed Moldova’s bid to join the European Union. Germany’s interest is partly economic: German companies have invested heavily in the country’s car-parts industry. Mr Scholz is expected to discuss Moldova’s security and EU hopes when he meets Maia Sandu, the pro-Western president, who faces a tricky election in the autumn.

On Wednesday Bank Indonesia, the central bank for South-East Asia’s largest economy, made its latest interest-rate decision. As expected, it held its benchmark rate at 6.25%. But falling inflation and a weaker dollar may soon give rate-setters the opportunity to loosen monetary policy. The prospect that America’s Federal Reserve could soon begin cutting rates has reduced pressure on the Indonesian currency. The greenback has weakened against the rupiah during August, dropping around 5%.

Indonesia’s central bankers, like those in other emerging markets, are breathing a sigh of relief. But a longer-term problem looms. Prabowo Subianto , the country’s president-elect, will take office in October. His intention to raise government borrowing may weaken the international appeal of the Indonesian currency. That will test the country’s central bankers, and may force them to keep interest rates at higher levels even as the Fed begins to cut.

Xiaomi, a Chinese tech group, made its name selling sleek but ultra-cheap smartphones in the early 2010s. The company gained a reputation as an Apple imitator; its boss, Lei Jun (pictured), was often accused of aping the pared-down sartorial style of Apple’s founder, Steve Jobs. More than a decade later Xiaomi appears to have bested Apple’s attempts to become an electric car maker. The American giant has abandoned its EV project while the Chinese firm, which first put its cars on the market in March, may sell up to 120,000 by the end of the year.

Investors will get an update on Xiaomi’s progress on Wednesday when it reports second-quarter earnings. The group is applying the same sleek-but-cheap strategy to EVs as it did to phones: the price of its SU 7 model starts at around $30,000. The big question for Xiaomi is whether it can keep prices that low and still turn a profit.

Sri Lanka’s cricketers begin a three-Test series against England in Manchester on Wednesday. England has already hosted the West Indies this summer, winning all three matches. They will probably dominate against Sri Lanka, too. It is tough for teams other than India, Australia and England to remain competitive in Test cricket. Many of Sri Lanka’s best players, including Wanindu Hasaranga and Charith Asalanka, both all-rounders, are concentrating on the more lucrative Twenty20 circuit, a much shorter format of the game.

Sri Lanka’s squad managed to squeeze in just a single warm-up game for the series (losing heavily to England’s second team). That has given them little chance to adapt to unfamiliar conditions. In fact, the team has not won a Test outside of Asia since they beat a callow Zimbabwe side in early 2020. A heavy defeat to England would do little to boost the popularity of Test matches in Sri Lanka—or the broader reputation of the format as a compelling spectacle.