India avoids siding with US at Security Council against Russia on Ukraine

India on Monday avoided siding with the United States and refrained from supporting its move to hold a meeting of the United Nations Security Council to discuss Russia’s military build-up around Ukraine.

Moscow sent a senior diplomat to New Delhi just hours before Russia sought a procedural vote at the UNSC to decide if the council should go ahead and hold the meeting proposed by the US.

India, currently a non-permanent member of the UNSC, finally abstained from voting on the proposal mooted by the US to hold the meeting of the council on the crisis over Ukraine in the wake of massive troop build-up by Russia. The US move, however, succeeded as it was supported by the two other permanent members of the UNSC – France and the United Kingdom – as well as seven non-permanent members. Russia and China, which are also permanent members of the council, voted against the move.

Kenya and Gabon, the two other non-permanent members, also abstained from voting, like India.

T S Tirumurti, India's envoy to the UN, told the Security Council that India was in favour of finding a solution that could provide for “immediate de-escalation of tensions” over Ukraine, “taking into account the legitimate security interests of all countries and aimed towards securing long term peace and stability in the region and beyond”.

His statement and New Delhi’s decision to abstain from voting at the Security Council subtly signalled that India would not align with the US on the issue and would not take a position directly opposed to that of Russia.

“It is our considered view that the issue can only be resolved through diplomatic dialogue,” said Tirumurti, articulating New Delhi’s position at the UNSC.

Vasily Nebenzya, Russia’s permanent representative to the UN, thanked India, Gabon and Kenya for abstaining from voting as well as China for voting against the proposal by the US to go ahead with the meeting of the Security Council.

India decided against siding with the US at the Security Council just hours after Russia sent one of its senior diplomats to seek its support. Reenat Sandhu, Secretary (West) at the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) of the Government of India, hosted Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vasilyevich Vershinin in New Delhi. “Both sides held wide ranging discussions on issues on the UN Security Council agenda and related developments. Both sides agreed to deepen cooperation on issues of mutual interest at multilateral platforms,” according to a press-release issued by the MEA in New Delhi.

Vershinin briefed Sandhu on Russia’s priorities during the 76th session of the UN General Assembly.

Russia will take over as the president of the UN Security Council for the month of February on Tuesday. The meeting between Sandhu and Vershinin saw the two sides agreeing to work closely together, given the common challenges faced and in keeping with the long standing special and privileged Strategic Partnership between India and Russia, according to Arindam Bagchi, the spokesperson of the MEA in New Delhi.

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