India’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations (UN) TS Tirumurti on Friday told the Dutch ambassador to the United Kingdom Karel van Oosterom not to patronise India in response to comments Oosterom made on India’s alleged lack of support for Ukraine.
“Kindly don’t patronise us,” Tirumurti replied to a tweet by Oosterom saying that India should not have abstained from voting against Russia at the UN General Assembly. “India knows what to do,” he added. In April, India abstained from voting to remove Russia from the Human Rights Council over atrocities committed by Russian forces in Bucha and other Ukrainian cities. It also earlier abstained from voting on UNGA resolutions that condemned the Russian invasion on two occasions as well as twice in the UN Security Council (UNSC).
Oosterom later deleted the tweet after the thread was inundated with a barrage of criticism against his remarks.
The Dutch envoy was replying to Tirumurti’s statement at the Security Council on Thursday about the current situation in Ukraine. In the statement, he reiterated India’s position of “pursuing the path of dialogue and diplomacy” as the only way to bring an end to the war.
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“India has strongly condemned the killing of civilians in Bucha and supported the call for an independent investigation,” Tirumurti said, adding that “we support all efforts to alleviate the suffering of the people of Ukraine.”
He also welcomed the visit of UN Secretary-General António Guterres to Moscow and Kyiv, where he respectively met with Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky. The Indian envoy noted that Guterres’ visit would help in boosting evacuation efforts to rescue civilians stuck at the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, which Ukrainians say has been destroyed beyond recognition due to a sustained Russian assault.
Tirumurti mentioned the Russia-Ukraine war is having a “destabilising effect” on global energy and agricultural markets, noting a “disproportionate impact” on developing countries. In this respect, he said that these challenges “require us to respond by going beyond constraints that bind us presently.”
He added that India has been sending humanitarian assistance to Ukraine and its neighbours and called on the international community to work towards establishing more humanitarian corridors in Ukraine to continue the supply of aid.
While India has supported Ukraine with humanitarian aid and condemned the killing of civilians, it has been reluctant to publicly denounce Moscow’s actions. Instead, it has called for a cessation of hostilities and urged for the respect of international law and the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all nations. Experts have cited India’s past relations with Russia, Moscow’s support for New Delhi in multilateral fora, and its heavy dependence on Russia for defence equipment as the reasons behind its refusal to outright condemn Russia.