New Delhi: India on Sunday abstained from a procedural vote taken in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to call for a rare, special emergency session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) on Russia's aggression against Ukraine.
This happened even as New Delhi welcomed Moscow and Kyiv's decision to hold talks at the Belarus border, according to media reports.
“We reiterate our call for an immediate cessation of violence and an end to all hostilities. Our PM has advocated this strongly in his recent conversations with the leadership of the Russian Federation and Ukraine,” news agency ANI quoted TS Tirumurti, India's Permanent Representative to the UN, as saying at the UNSC meeting on Ukraine.
“We welcome today's announcement by both sides to hold talks at the Belarus border. We continue to be deeply concerned about the safety and security of the Indian nationals including a large number of Indian students who are still stranded in Ukraine,” India’s Ambassador to the UN further said.
At the UNSC meeting, Tirumurti also said: “Our evacuation efforts have been adversely impacted by the complex and uncertain situation at the border crossings. Taking into consideration the totality of circumstances, we decided to abstain.”
Resolution Adopted With 11 Votes In Favour
The resolution was adopted with 11 votes in favour, and paved the way for the General Assembly to meet on the crisis as soon as Monday, reports said.
Russia voted against the resolution. The countries which abstained were India, China and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
This emergency meeting will be only the 11th such emergency session of the General Assembly since 1950.
On Sunday afternoon, the 15-nation Security Council met to hold the vote on the emergency special session of the 193-member General Assembly on Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
The meeting was held two days after the Russian veto blocked a UNSC resolution on its "aggression" against Ukraine.
The vote calling for the UN General Assembly was procedural. Therefore, none of the five permanent members of the Security Council could exercise their vetoes, media reports said. The five permanent members of the Security Council are: China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States (US).
Tirumurti also shared a statement on Twitter, as an explanation to Sunday’s vote. In the statement, he said that it is regrettable that the situation in Ukraine has worsened further since the Council last convened on this matter.
Tirumurti said in the statement that "there is no other choice but to return to the path of diplomacy and dialogue".
"We welcome today's announcement by both sides to hold talks at the Belarus border," Tirumurti said.
"Our evacuation efforts have been adversely impacted by the complex and uncertain situation at the border crossings. It is important to maintain an uninterrupted and predictable movement of people. It is an urgent humanitarian necessity that must be immediately addressed," Tirumurti said.
On Friday evening, the Security Council failed to adopt the US-sponsored resolution that would have deplored Russia's "aggression" against Ukraine after Moscow used its veto. India, China and the UAE, on Friday too, abstained from the resolution, while 11 members of the Council voted in favour.