MAP – The UN General Assembly on Thursday demanded an “immediate” withdrawal of Russian troops. The resolution received 141 votes for, seven against, and 32 countries abstained, including China and India.
One year after the first day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, countries around the world met this Thursday at the UN General Assembly which had already condemned, in the first days of the invasion, the Russian aggression.
The Assembly adopted, by an overwhelming majority, a non-binding resolution calling for the withdrawal “immediate” Russian troops, calling for a peace “just and sustainable”. Of the 193 members of the Organization, 141 countries approved the text and 32 abstained.
Above all, seven countries voted against the resolution, two more than during the condemnation of March 2, 2022. To Russia, Belarus, Syria, Eritrea and North Korea are now added Nicaragua, whose the dictator Ortega continues to harden his regime and to distance himself diplomatically from the West, and Mali, anchored more and more firmly in the Russian sphere of influence. “The usual suspects“, commented on Twitter the consultant in international risks Stéphane Audrand. Between the two postures, there are three abstentionists less than in March.
“The Grand Coalition Holds On»
This last posture meansspare Russia without being frontally in opposition to the West“, also specifies Stéphane Audrand. China and India are concerned, but also many African countries. “The case of Armenia is emblematic“, notes the consultant. The country, attacked by Azerbaijan, can only condemn the modification of the borders by force but abstained because it is dependent on Moscow, an influential interlocutor with its enemy to resolve the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh. Other countries like Brazil or the Gulf countries, very measured with Moscow, have nevertheless approved the resolution, observes the consultant.
Nevertheless, “the grand coalition holds firm“. At the start of the war, 141 countries had voted for the text condemning the invasion, just like this Wednesday, therefore. “We got a victory (…). The world understands which side is the truth“, welcomed the head of the Ukrainian presidential administration Andriï Yermak after the adoption of the resolution. And it’s “much more than the West“, underlined the Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kouleba.
“A Global Peace”
The General Assembly resolution reaffirms the “attachmentto the territorial integrity of Ukraine andrequired“that Russia”immediately, completely and unconditionally withdraw all its military forces from Ukrainian territory within the country’s internationally recognized borders», a reference to the territories annexed by Russia. She also calls for acessation of hostilities” And “stresses the need to achieve, as soon as possible, a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in Ukraine in accordance with the principles of the Charter of the United Nations“.
But if the overwhelming majority of member countries approved this resolution, to loud applause, the war nevertheless upset the international order that emerged from the Second World War. India and China, which still refuse to condemn Russian aggression, together account for a third of the world’s population. Beijing, which displays its friendship with Russia, is campaigning to impose the supremacy of an authoritarian model. And all of the countries that we call the “Global South”, which abstained in Africa, or which adopted the resolution in South America while reluctant to strongly condemn Russia, observe and reserve their judgment on the value democracies, as analyzed in his editorial by Philippe Gélie, deputy editor of the Figaro.
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