Explained || Why India abstained from voting at United Nation on Ukraine war

India questioned the effectiveness of the United Nations and the Security Council in tackling contemporary challenges and pointed to the resolution’s inherent limitations’ to justify its stance of abstaining from the voting as the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution on Friday to end the way.

Apart from India, China, Pakistan, and 31 countries kept themselves away from the vote. Explaining India’s vote, Ruchira Kamboj, the country’s permanent representative to the UN asked if ‘any process that does not involve either of the two sides ever lead to a credible and meaningful solution.’

“Are we anywhere near a possible solution acceptable to both sides? Has the UN system and particularly its principal organ, the UN Security Council, based on a 1945-world construct, not been rendered ineffective to address contemporary challenges to a global peace and security,” Kamboj said.

She further claimed that India remains steadfastly committed to multilateralism and upholds the principles of the UN Charter.

“We will always call for dialogue and diplomacy as the only viable way out. While we take note of the stated objective of today’s resolution, given its inherent limitations in reaching our desired goal of securing lasting peace, we are constrained to abstain,” she added.

Notably, India has abstained on all votes so far on the Ukraine crisis at the General Assembly since Russia launched the invasion on February 24, 2022. At a meeting with President Vladimir Putin last September, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said ‘today’s era is not of war’ and highlighted the food and energy crisis faced by developing countries.

Despite pressure from the West, India continues to buy discounted Russian crude. India’s representative further said that India’s approach to the Ukraine conflict will continue to be people-centric and will continue to provide both humanitarian assistance to Ukraine and economic support to some of our neighbours in the Global South under economic distress.