Pakistan chooses not to vote in the UNGA session to censure Russia

In the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) emergency session on Wednesday, Pakistan abstained from voting to censure Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.

Pakistan’s UN Ambassador Munir Akram delivered a speech, in which he said, “Pakistan is committed to the fundamental principles of the UN Charter: self-determination of peoples, non-use or threat of use of force, sovereignty and territorial integrity of States, and pacific settlement of disputes.”

“We hope the talks initiated between representatives of the Russian Federation and Ukraine will succeed in bringing about a cessation of hostilities and normalisation of the situation,” he said while adding that Pakistan supports all efforts to provide humanitarian relief to civilians in the affected areas.

The ambassador stated that Pakistan was more concerned about the safety of Pakistani citizens and students in Ukraine.

The session was called by the UN which demanded that Russia should stop fighting and urged it to immediately withdraw its military forces from Ukraine.

141 member states voted in favour of the resolution. Besides Russia, four other countries voted against the resolution. While India, Bangladesh, China (one of the five permanent members) abstained.

Pakistan Foreign Office (FO) received a letter from top diplomats of 22 countries on Tuesday, urging Islamabad to support a UNGA resolution, reports Dawn.