India defends procedural vote against Russia at UNSC
New delhi, august 25
India for the first time on Wednesday voted against Russia at the United Nations Security Council on the Ukraine issue even as the Foreign Office scrambled to explain that “we have not voted against anyone”.
The vote, said MEA spokesperson, was only on a procedural issue — whether to allow President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to virtually speak at the UNSC while Moscow insisted that he should address the body in person. In the end, Russia was left alone in its opposition while 13 countries, including India, voted in favour and China offered Moscow the only solace by abstaining from the vote. But the fact is that India has voted against Russia on the issue of Ukraine for the first time after the Russian military action began in February.
However, sources pointed out that India had refrained from joining the “Crimea Platform” launched by Zelenskyy. The second meeting of this platform was held on Ukrainian Independence Day and joined by about 60 countries and organisations. Kyiv admitted that while there was near complete representation from the Euro-Atlantic zone, representation from the Global South, especially of countries from Asia, Africa and Latin America, was weak. At the subsequent discussions at the UNSC, India kept its focus firmly on humanitarian assistance. “This humanitarian aid symbolises India’s human centric development approach,” said India’s Permanent Representative to UN Ruchira Kamboj.
