At the United Nations Security Council meeting on the Ukraine crisis, India has reiterated that “well-being” of its national is a priority for New Delhi when it comes to the precarious situation. India has around 20,000 nationals in the country, most of them are Indian students in the country for medical education. Speaking at the meeting that happened under the Russian presidency of the security council, Indian envoy to United Nations T.S. Tirumurti called for “immediate de-escalation of tensions” that takes into “account the legitimate security interests of all countries and aimed towards securing long-term peace and stability in the region and beyond.”
This is 2nd such meeting in Ukraine and took place under the header of implementation of the Minsk pacts. The last meeting happened last month under Norway’s presidency of the council. While no vote happened in Thursday’s meeting, January meet out of 15 members of the council, 10 supporting west, 3 abstaining which includes India and 2 against which includes Russia and China.
At the meeting, India backed the implementation of the Minsk pact and talks under the Normandy format. The Indian envoy said, “We believe that the “Minsk Agreements”, provide a basis for a negotiated and peaceful settlement of the situation in Eastern Ukraine” urging all “parties to continue to engage through all possible diplomatic channels and keep working towards the full implementation of the “Minsk Agreements”.”
Minsk pact which includes Russia, Ukraine, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe OSCE is a 2014/2015 agreement that calls for a ceasefire in Eastern Ukraine regions of Donetsk, Luhansk & others among other things. The Normandy format of talks includes Germany, France, and members of the Minsk pact and basically focuses on the pact’s implementation.
Read | Ukraine-Russia crisis: Quiet, constructive diplomacy need of hour, says India at UNSC
Envoy Tirumurti highlighted, “We also believe that meetings under the Normandy Format will further facilitate the implementation of the provisions of the “Minsk Agreements”, including its key security and political aspects” and welcomed the recent meetings of the Political Advisers of Normandy Format countries in Paris and Berlin. The overall message by New Delhi from the high table was that “Any steps that increase tension may best be avoided by all sides in the larger interest of securing international peace and security” supporting “Quiet and constructive diplomacy” which is the “need of the hour.”
Thursday’s UNSC meeting saw lot of fireworks between Russia and the US. The meeting saw the US Secretary of state himself addressing the council pointing that, “Russia plans to manufacture a pretext for its attack. This could be a violent event that Russia will blame on Ukraine or an outrageous accusation that Russia will level against the Ukrainian Government”. Moscow has been dismissing the west’s accusation Russia will invade Ukraine. Russia was represented by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin at the council. Interestingly Vershinin was in Delhi a few weeks ago to brief India about the ongoing crisis in Eastern Europe.
