More than 10 days into the Ukraine-Russia war, India has been facing a tough question from the West on abstaining United Nations resolutions against Vladimir Putin’s country including when the two-third of the UN Human Rights Council voted on March 4 to investigate all alleged violations and abuses of human rights and international humanitarian law in context of the Russian Federation’s aggression against Ukraine.
According to top government sources, India has always maintained that it wants the war to “stop immediately and Russia and Ukraine should resolve the issues through diplomacy”.
India had last week, too, abstained on a UN General Assembly resolution that strongly deplored Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. The resolution, supported by 141 of the assembly’s 193 members, passed in a rare emergency session called by the UN Security Council The text of the resolution deplored Russia’s “aggression against Ukraine”. The last time the Security Council convened an emergency session of the General Assembly was in 1982, according to the UN website.
Although most of Europe, including Hungary and Serbia, who share closest ties with Moscow, voted to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, India is of the view that its diplomacy and geopolitics is much more “different” than Europe. “We are in a different continent and region… we have compulsions and we will defend our interests while speaking out against the war,” the top sources have said.
The Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, had attacked NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) leaders in a fiery speech over their refusal to set up a no-fly zone around the country, and said from now on every single death will be their responsibility. “Knowing that new strikes and casualties are inevitable, NATO deliberately decided not to close the sky over Ukraine,” Zelensky said in a video published by the presidency.
NATO’s secretary-general, Jens Stoltenbergy, had said on Friday that if a “no-fly zone” is implemented, it could lead to a “full-fledged war in Europe, involving many more countries and causing much more human suffering”. It is to be noticed, and that’s where India’s stand lies, if NATO can protect its interests, how can the West expect India to vote for or against any resolution.
Even US secretary of State Anthony Blinken ruled out the introduction of a “no-fly zone”. The calls made by the Ukrainian president to NATO went unanswered, and that should bring clarity to all sides.
India firmly believes in dialogue and diplomacy, and hopes Ukraine and Russian will soon sit for negotiations and agree on a compromise, according to top government sources.
The Russia-Ukraine situation was discussed at the Quad (a group of four countries) meeting held virtually among Narendra Modi, US President Joseph Biden, Australian PM Tom Morrison and his Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida on March 3, where “PM Modi emphasised the need to return to a path of dialogue and diplomacy,” according to a government statement.
Read all the Latest News India and Breaking News here
Comments
0 comment