India’s independent stand on the ongoing European crisis was boldly emphasised once again by its Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador TS Tirumurti.
“Kindly don’t patronise us,” New Delhi “knows what to do”, he said in response to a recent tweet by Karel van Oosterom, Ambassador of the Netherlands to the UK.
In his tweet, the Dutch envoy had said that India should not have abstained from the UN General Assembly on Ukraine. “You should not have abstained in the GA. Respect the UN Charter,” he said to Tirumurti in the tweet.
Mr. Tirumurti delivered a statement at the UN Security Council meeting in Ukraine. He posted the text of his statement on Twitter saying “At the UN Security Council meeting on #Ukraine this afternoon, I made the following statement” to which Mr. van Oosterom made the comment about India abstaining in the General Assembly.
Since January this year, India has abstained on procedural votes and draft resolutions in the UN Security Council, the General Assembly, and the Human Rights Council that deplored Russian aggression against Ukraine.
In April, India abstained in the UN General Assembly on a vote moved by the US to suspend Russia from the UN Human Rights Council over allegations that Russian soldiers killed civilians while retreating from towns near the Ukrainian capital Kyiv.
In March, India abstained from the UN General Assembly on a resolution by Ukraine and its allies on the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, saying the focus should be on cessation of hostilities and on urgent humanitarian assistance and the draft did not fully reflect New Delhi’s expected to focus on these challenges.
On March 2, the General Assembly had voted to reaffirm its commitment to the sovereignty, independence, unity, and territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognised borders and deplored in the strongest terms Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. India, along with 34 other nations had abstained from the meeting.
On February 24, Russian forces launched military operations in Ukraine, three days after Moscow recognised Ukraine’s breakaway regions—Donetsk and Luhansk—as independent entities.
