More than 400 days after the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, China and India have taken a stance on the conflict, however the action does not mark a significant shift in their foreign policy toward Moscow.
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| Vote on Russian aggression in Ukraine 2023 at the UN |
China and India have adopted a position on the conflict begun by Russian President Vladimir Putin on February 24, 2022, more than 400 days after it began. The two Asian behemoths, who had previously rejected denouncing Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine, voted for a UN General Assembly resolution on ties between the UN and the Council of Europe that specifically mentions the "aggression of the Russian Federation of Ukraine."
Borrell's applause
The approval of the resolution's language (with 122 votes in favor, 5 against, and 18 abstentions last week) indicates a first diplomatic shift in Delhi and Beijing's approach to Vladimir Putin's conflict in Ukraine. Russia, Belarus, Syria, Nicaragua, and North Korea were among those that voted no.
The two countries had previously refused to condemn Russia's invasion, and while the vote does not represent a significant shift in their foreign policy toward Moscow - especially given their commercial and military ties - it is a first signal that the EU's High Representative for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, "welcomed" the vote.
"By 122 votes, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution on cooperation with the Council of Europe, which included major G20 partners such as China, Brazil, India, and Indonesia." "We welcome the resolution, which clearly qualifies the Russian Federation's war against Ukraine as 'aggression by the Russian Federation,'" Borrell stated on Twitter.
Why did Beijing support it?
But what does Beijing's vote really mean? The resolution, which is not legally enforceable, made no mention of the conflict in Ukraine. The essence of the issue is contained in a single phrase in the premises of the 11-page resolution, which then speaks about something very different. According to Sergey Radchenko, a professor at the Kessinger Center, the issue on Ukraine is fairly minor in the UN resolution, and is stated only in paragraph 9 of the text. According to the analyst, the resolution does not "condemn" Russia's aggression against Ukraine, but rather "recognizes" that it has posed "unprecedented challenges" for Europe (as shown in the screenshot below, ed.).
Furthermore, Radchenko points out that there were two votes cast during the resolution debate. The first was whether or not paragraph 9 should be included in the resolution. China, Armenia, and Kazakhstan all voted no. However, because paragraph 9 was approved, the entire resolution was approved with a positive vote.
Beijing's vote must be interpreted in light of recent Russian-Chinese events. With the visit of Chinese President Xi to Moscow and the removal of the term "limitless partnership" from joint documents, and then with the phone call between the Chinese president and his Ukrainian counterpart Zelensky, Beijing appears to want to cement its position as a responsible and neutral country for conflict resolution, presenting himself as a mediator between Kiev and Moscow.
Then there's the issue of the Chinese leader's independence from his pal Putin. In truth, the Chinese Communist Party's top one wishes to avoid witnessing a Russian fiasco since it would result in the defeat of a significant partner in the battle against US hegemony and the establishment of a new global system.
The vote's timing and the phone call between Xi and Zelensky
According to the UN website, the vote was held on April 26, the day of the first phone call between Volodymyr Zelensky and Xi Jinping since the start of the war, which the Ukrainian president had requested for some time in the hope of convincing the Chinese leader to put pressure on Putin to end the aggression.
During the meeting, Xi emphasized the importance of mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity as the "political foundation of China-Ukraine relations." The issue discussed by the two leaders does not appear to have pleased Moscow: the Kremlin sought to make it clear the next day that the return to the 1991 borders had not been a topic of conversation between Putin and Xi during the Chinese leader's recent visit to Fly.
In any event, the phone contact resulted in the sending of an ambassador to Beijing and a special representative to Kiev, as well as a tentative applause from the world community. It is unclear how Moscow would react to Beijing's vote on the UN resolution.
Source: Serena Consul/TODAY