India was among 107 countries which voted on Monday to reject Moscow’s call for a secret vote in the UN General Assembly (UNGA) on a resolution condemning Russia’s referendums in Ukraine.
This was the third time in the past couple of monthsthat India went against Russia in a procedural vote even though its overall position on the Russia-Ukraine conflict has remained unchanged, as evident from its abstention from a vote in the Security Council late last month on the resolution condemning Russia’s “illegal” annexation of four Ukrainian regions.
The 193-member United Nations General Assembly on Monday voted on a motion by Albania that action on the draft resolution that would condemn Russia’s “illegal socalled referendums” and “a ttempted illegal annexation” of the Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia regions of Ukraine be taken by a recorded vote.
Moscow’s demand for a secret ballot was rejected after 107 UN member states, including India, voted in favour of a recorded vote.
Only 13 nations voted in favour of Russia’s call for a secret ballot while 39 abstained. Russia and China were among the countriesthat did n’t vote. Russia then sought reconsideration of the decision to adopt the motion submitted by Albania for arecorded vote.
The General Assembly decided not to reconsider the motion after 104 nations, including India, votedagai nst such a reconsideration, while 16 voted in favour and 34 abstained.
Russia’s permanent representative Vassily Nebenzia said the UN membership had “become witnesses to an outrageous fra ud in which the president of the general assembly, unfortunately, played a key role”. “We were not given the floor to make a point of order (the indicator light at our seat is still on), our statement was distorted, and now UN member states are being robbed of their right to express their opinion freely. This is an unprecedented manipulation undermining the authority of the general assembly and the United Nations as a whole. Of course, in such circumstances we opted to not take part in the vote,” he said.
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