India abstains from voting on Russia’s resolution on bio-weapons in UNSC

NEW DELHI: India abstained from voting on a resolution brought by Russia in the UN Security Council for a probe into allegations by Moscow that Ukraine and the US are conducting “military biological” activities in Ukraine labs that violate the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC).
While China was the only country to vote in favour apart from Russia, the US, UK and France voted against. India was among the 10 countries that abstained.
In India’s ‘explanation of vote’, counsellor A Amarnath said India attached high importance to the BWC, which is the first non-discriminatory disarmament treaty banning a complete category of weapons of mass destruction.
Despite the sanctions imposed by the West, India has ramped up trade ties with Russia in the past several months and foreign minister S Jaishankar is expected to further discuss issues pertaining to bilateral economic cooperation in various domains with Russian trade minister Denis Manturov next week in Moscow. Jaishankar will also discuss developments in the Ukraine conflict with his counterpart Sergey Lavrov.
While India has not condemned Russia for its military actions, it has voted against Russian proposals to prevent Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy from addressing the UN virtually.
On the alleged bioweapons in Ukraine, the US said the allegations were based on “disinformation, dishonesty, bad faith, and a total lack of respect for this body”.
“We remain committed to enhancing the effectiveness of the BWC and strengthening its implementation in letter and spirit,” said Amarnath. India reiterated the need to negotiate a comprehensive legally-binding protocol providing for an effective, universal and non-discriminatory verification mechanism to strengthen the implementation of the convention.
“This is necessary to strengthen BWC and its implementation by the state parties, and we hope the current situation will provide an impetus for early consideration, negotiation and finalisation of such a protocol by the state parties. Factoring in all these aspects, India has decided to abstain from the resolution,” said the Indian diplomat.