Pakistan stays on sidelines as UN debates Ukraine

Pakistan stays on sidelines as UN debates Ukraine

Pakistan stays on sidelines as UN debates Ukraine

PTI

Islamabad : Pakistan allowed its turn to pass as the UN General Assembly continued to debate a resolution demanding immediate withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine, according to a media report on Wednesday.

It said the US State Department urged journalists not to “focus on individual specific countries” when they asked questions about India's abstentions. India had abstained on the resolution, along with China and the UAE, while Russia voted against and 11 Council members in favour.

China is Pakistan's closest ally which supports Islamabad on key issues on various international fora, such as the United Nations and the FATF.Diplomatic observers in Washington claim that China also played a key role in arranging Prime Minister Imran Khan's visit to Russia last week.

The observers argue that Pakistan is gradually orbiting out of the American influence and getting closer to both China and Russia, a claim Islamabad rejects as incorrect. Pakistan says it wants to maintain close ties with both China and the United States and apparently that is why it does not want to get involved in the Ukrainian dispute, the report said.

Pakistan became conspicuous in the Ukraine crisis as Prime Minister Khan was visiting Moscow when the attack was ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said at a press briefing that it was a bilateral visit planned well ahead of the eruption of the conflict. He also said that Islamabad would not take sides and later on he held a telephonic conversation with his Ukrainian counterpart.

 While a UNSC resolution condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine would have been legally binding and General Assembly resolutions are not, voting in the 193-member UN body is symbolic of world opinion on the crisis and carries political weight as they represent the will of the entire UN membership.

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