China raised its hand against Russia at the UN. Concern in Moscow

A Russian news server perceives a change in China’s attitude. It is based on information published by the Icelandic delegation at the UN assembly, where the resolution “Cooperation between the UN and the Council of Europe” was voted on. China supported it, as did other former Soviet republics. Russia’s representative at the UN blames the authors of the resolution for “ignoring NATO’s aggression against the former Yugoslavia.”

Hans Štembera

Description: Embassy of the PRC

According to the Russian server The Moscow Times China appears to have changed its stance and, for the first time, did not abstain from voting on UN documents that contain similarly strong language regarding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. On the contrary, China supported the collective resolution of the UN General Assembly, which describes Russia as an “aggressor”.

The Russian server drew on information published by the Icelandic embassy on the occasion of the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNG77) – an annual meeting of representatives of all UN member states that takes place in New York and discusses global issues and makes decisions regarding international politics, security and development.

“Today, the UNG77 adopted a resolution on “Cooperation between the United Nations and the Council of Europe” with 122 votes. We thank our co-organizers and UN members for their support,” reads a tweet from the Icelandic council.

122 countries including China voted for the document code A/77/L.65. 18 countries did not participate in the vote and five were against. Among them Syria, Nicaragua, Russian Federation, Democratic Republic of Congo and Belarus. The vote took place on April 26, 2023 before four in the afternoon.

The resolution on cooperation between the United Nations and the Council of Europe includes the designation of Russia as an “aggressor”, calls for the reparation of the damage caused to the victims of the war in Ukraine caused by Russia, as well as for “bringing to justice all those guilty of violating the norms of international law”. The document also includes a section on the “unprecedented challenges” Europe is currently facing as a result of Russian aggression against Ukraine and, earlier, against Georgia.

The Moscow Times also mentions that other former republics of the Soviet Union, such as Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan or Armenia, also voted for the resolution. The document was also supported by the “friendly” states of Russia – India, Brazil and Turkey.

Serhiy Kislica, Ukraine’s representative at the UN, said after the document’s approval that Russian diplomats sought to remove the wording with the word “aggression” from the resolution. These diplomats cited the “politicization” of a paragraph of the document that “has nothing to do with the issues of the resolution” as the reason. Russia’s representative at the UN, Vasilii Nebenzya, reminds the authors of the resolution that “NATO’s aggression against the former Yugoslavia has also been ignored” and that “Ukraine’s eight-year-old war against the people of Donbas has been deliberately silent for eight years.”

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