For the first time, India did not support Russia during a United Nations Security Council vote on Ukraine, when the 15-member strong UN body invited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to address a meeting via video teleconference. However, India did not sign a document at the UN against Russia that was sponsored by the West and supported by over 60 countries.
Sources in India did not see India’s position at the UN Security Council on a procedural topic as a substantial divergence, citing India’s previous positions on procedural votes. India has not condemned Russia for the Ukraine conflict.
Meanwhile, only 58 United Nations member states, or fewer than a third of the organisation’s 193 members, signed an united anti-Russian statement on the Ukraine war on Wednesday. According to the report, India was not a signatory to this joint statement.
The European Union, the United States, the United Kingdom, Georgia, Turkey, and a number of Asian and Latin American countries have all signed the statement.
New Delhi has repeatedly urged the Russian and Ukrainian sides to return to the road of diplomacy and negotiation, and has backed all diplomatic attempts to end the crisis between the two nations. India is now a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for a two-year term that expires in December.
On the 31st anniversary of Ukraine’s independence, the UN Security Council met on Wednesday to assess the six-month-old conflict. As the meeting began, Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vassily A Nebenzia requested a procedural vote concerning the Ukrainian President’s attendance in the meeting by video tele-conference.
Following his and Albanian Prime Minister Ferit Hoxha’s words, the Council invited Zelensky to join in the meeting via video teleconference by a vote of 13 to one. Russia and China both voted against such an invitation.
Nebenzia stressed that Russia did not oppose Zelensky’s participation, but that it must take place in person. The Council chose to function virtually during the COVID-19 epidemic, but such sessions were informal, and after the pandemic’s climax, the Council returned to the provisional rules of procedure, he said.
Reiterating his country’s objection to the President’s participation through video teleconference, he sought for a procedural vote on the topic, to which India and 12 other countries did not agree and supported Zelensky’s decision to address the Council by video conference.