Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD/UNITED NATIONS: Russia has urged United Nations (UN) member states to vote against an “unbalanced and anti-Russian” draft resolution moved in the General Assembly by Ukraine and others, seeking lasting peace at the earliest. On the other hand, China said it would release a “position paper” on the Russia-Ukraine war within days.
United Nations votes on resolution
The 193-member United Nations General Assembly is due to vote later this week on the draft resolution stressing “the need to reach, as soon as possible, comprehensive, just and lasting peace” in line with the founding UN Charter.
Ukraine and its supporters hope to deepen Moscow’s diplomatic isolation by seeking yes votes from nearly three-quarters of the UN General Assembly to match, if not better, the support received for many other resolutions the previous year, according to Reuters.
The draft resolution would again see the UN General Assembly ask Russia to withdraw its troops and call for a halt to hostilities. Though UN General Assembly resolutions are non-binding, they carry political weight.
“Even the eventual cessation of hostilities without the clear incentive for meaningful talks as well as rectifying the issues that lead to the crisis will not bring a long-lasting solution,” Russian Ambassador to UN Vassily Nebenzia said in a letter to UN member states.
“There is no mentioning of ‘dialogue’ and ‘negotiations’,” he said of the draft resolution. “If the text remains unbalanced and anti-Moscow, as it is now, we ask member states to vote against it,” he said.
