UNITED NATIONS: India was among four countries that abstained on a draft resolution at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) condemning the so-called referenda organised by Russia across four regions of Ukraine. The other abstaining countries were China, Brazil and Gabon.
The UNSC resolution, sponsored by the United States and Albania, failed to pass the 15-member Council, despite winning ten supporting votes, after Russia used a veto to block it. The resolution condemns the referenda, calls on the international community not to recognise any alterations to Ukraine’s territory and calls for Russia to withdraw its forces from Ukraine.
India abstained on the resolution “keeping in view the totality of the evolving situation”, its Permanent Representative to the United Nations (UNPR), Ruchira Kamboj said.
India was “deeply disturbed” by the recent events in Ukraine, Kamboj said, as she explained India’s abstention vote and called for an immediate cessation of violence. “We’ve always advocated that no solution can ever be arrived at the cost of human lives,” she said. The path to peace involved dialogue and keeping open diplomatic channels, Kamboj said, as she repeated Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s message to Russian President Vladimir Putin, that now as not the era for war.
Ukraine, represented by its UNPR, Sergiy Kyslytsya, called the Security Council a “broken” pillar of the United Nations. He devoted a large part of his remarks to questioning the legitimacy of Russia as the Soviet Union’s successor state on the Security Council.
China, which has a border dispute with India and has taken an increasingly aggressive position in Asia with regard to territorial claims, stressed the importance of sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries. “It is unreasonable to assume that populations in areas of conflict, are able to freely express their will,” Brazil’s UNPR Ronaldo Costa Filho, said, adding that under the current circumstances the referenda cannot be considered legitimate.
