India has abstained from voting in the United Nations on a resolution against Russia for annexation of four territories in Ukraine and said it did so “keeping in view the totality of the evolving situation.”
The resolution failed to get adopted as Russia, a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), vetoed it. The US and Albania had moved the resolution. It was supported by 10 of the 15 members of the UNSC. China, India, Brazil and Gabon abstained.
This development took place late on Friday hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin inked a treaty to annex Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.
The move to oppose this action was initiated in the UNSC condemning Moscow’s “illegal referenda”.
Also, it declared its annexation of four Ukrainian territories as invalid. The 15-nation UNSC voted on Friday on the draft resolution on “Illegal So-Called Referenda in Ukraine.”
Enunciating the country’s stand, India’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Ruchira Kamboj, said India is deeply disturbed by the recent turn of developments in Ukraine and New Delhi has always advocated that no solution can ever arrive at the cost of human lives.
“Escalation of rhetoric or tensions is in no one’s interest. It is important that pathways are found for a return to the negotiating table. Keeping in view the totality of the evolving situation, India has decided to abstain on this resolution,” she said.
“We urge that all efforts are made by concerned sides for the immediate cessation of violence and hostilities. Dialogue is the only answer to settling differences and disputes, however daunting that may appear at this moment,” she said in the explanation of the vote.
“The path to peace requires us to keep all channels of diplomacy open,” she said.
Kamboj said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has “unequivocally conveyed” the importance of dialogue and diplomacy in his discussions with world leaders, including Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. She also referred to statements made by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Ukraine during the high-level General Assembly session last week.
Referring to Modi’s remark to Putin on the sidelines of the SCO Summit in Uzbekistan’s Samarkand last month that “today’s era is not an era of war”, Kamboj said New Delhi sincerely hopes for an early resumption of peace talks to bring about an immediate ceasefire and resolution of the conflict.
India has previously abstained on two occasions in the Security Council and once in the General Assembly on the resolutions on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said before the vote that the outcomes of Russia’s “sham referenda were pre-determined” in Moscow.
“Everybody knows it. They were held behind the barrel of Russian guns. Time and time again we have seen the Ukrainian people fight for their country and their democracy,” she said.
Earlier today, we saw Putin celebrate this clear violation of international law. He threw a party on Red Square to pat himself on the back for these illegal referenda. He is gloating and reminiscing about the Soviet empire and stated that this was just the beginning. As we all sit in this chamber and solemnly consider this resolution, Putin is instead boastfully shoving our shared values in our faces,” Thomas-Greenfield said.
Russia’s Permanent Representative Vassily Nebenzia said before the vote that the results of the referendum speak for themselves and that the residents of these regions do not want to return to Ukraine.
“They have made an informed and free choice in favor of our country,” he said, adding that the referendum were carried out in full conformity with the norms and principles of international law.
He added that more than 100 international observers from Italy, Germany, Venezuela, Latvia, and other states, who monitored the voting, also recognised the results to be legitimate.
“Washington which today is the loudest to criticise us and to speak of the territorial integrity of Ukraine recently declared that they were willing to use force to protect Taiwan which is an integral part of the People’s Republic of China,” he said.
The resolution would have condemned Russia’s organisation of “illegal so-called referenda” in regions within Ukraine’s internationally recognised borders.
The resolution would have also called upon all States, international organisations and specialised agencies not to recognise any purported acquisition by Russia of any or all of Ukraine’s regions of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson or Zaporizhzhya, and to refrain from any action or dealing that might be interpreted as recognising any such purported acquisition.