In UNGA, India votes to reject Russia’s demand for secret ballot on draft resolution on Ukraine

Only 13 nations voted in favour of Russia’s call for a secret ballot while 39 abstained

India on Tuesday joined 106 other nations at the United Nations General Assembly to reject Russia’s demand for a secret ballot on a proposed resolution that would condemn the former Soviet Union nation’s recent move to annex four regions in Ukraine.

The 193-member UN General Assembly on Monday voted on a motion by Albania that action on the draft resolution that would condemn Russia’s “illegal so-called referendums” and “attempted 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. Thirteen other nations voted for a secret ballot as demanded by Russia, while 39 abstained. Russia and China were among the nations that did not cast votes.

The voting on the resolution is now expected to take place on Wednesday. It seeks to demand Russia to undo annexation of the four areas and cease its unprovoked war of aggression.

India voted against Russia at the UN General Assembly a day after the Russian army launched a barrage of missile strikes on multiple targets across Ukraine in retaliation against the recent attack on the bridge linking Russia and Crimea, which it had annexed during in 2014.

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After the motion to hold a recorded vote was adopted, Russia appealed against the ruling of the president of the general assembly.

A recorded vote on Russia’s appeal was held and India was among the 100 nations who voted against the challenge made by Moscow.

Russia then sought reconsideration of the decision to adopt the motion submitted by Albania for a recorded vote.

The General Assembly decided not to reconsider the motion after 104 nations, including India, voted against 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 fraud 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.

This was the second time India voted against Russia at the United Nations. Though India over the past few months always abstained at the UN Security Council on the issue of Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine, it first broke out of the pattern on August 25.

“We really think that targeting infrastructure and causing civilian deaths is not acceptable in any part of the world,” External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said at Lowy Institute in Sydney at the end of his tour to Australia.

Jaishankar dodged a question from the audience India’s stand during the forthcoming voting on the resolution against Russia.

He stressed on the need to return to the path of diplomacy and dialogue to resolve the Russia-Ukraine conflict, saying: "this conflict is not helping anybody at all”.

(With PTI inputs)