UNSC meet on Ukraine: Well-being of our nationals a priority, says India

New Delhi: At the United Nation's Security Council meeting on the Ukraine crisis, India has reiterated that the "well-being" of its nationals is a priority for New Delhi when it comes to the precarious situation. India has around 20,000 nationals in the country, most of them are students pursuing medicine.

Speaking at the meeting that happened under the Russian presidency of the security council, Indian envoy to United Nations TS Tirumurti called for "immediate de-escalation of tensions" that takes into "account the legitimate security interests of all countries and aimed towards securing long-term peace and stability in the region and beyond."

This is the second such meeting on Ukraine and took place under the header of implementation of the Minsk pacts. The last meeting happened last month under Norway's presidency of the council. While no vote happened in Thursday's meeting, at the January meeting, out of 15 members of the council, 10 supported the West,  two were against, which included Russia and China. 3 abstained from voting, which included India.

At the meeting, India backed the implementation of the Minsk pact and talks under the Normandy format. The Indian envoy said, "We believe that the Minsk Agreements provide a basis for a negotiated and peaceful settlement of the situation in Eastern Ukraine. We are urging all parties to continue to engage through all possible diplomatic channels and keep working towards the full implementation of the Minsk Agreements."

Minsk pact, which includes Russia, Ukraine, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), is a 2014/2015 agreement that calls for ceasefire in Eastern Ukraine regions of Donetsk, Luhansk and others, among other things. The Normandy format of talks includes Germany, France and members of the Minsk pact and basically focuses on the pact's implementation.

Envoy Tirumurti highlighted, "We also believe that meetings under the Normandy Format will further facilitate the implementation of the provisions of the Minsk Agreements, including its key security and political aspects." He welcomed the recent meetings of the Political Advisers of Normandy Format countries in Paris and Berlin. The overall message by New Delhi from the high table was that "any steps that increase tension may best be avoided by all sides in the larger interest of securing international peace and security", supporting "quiet and constructive diplomacy" which is the "need of the hour."

Thursday's UNSC meeting saw a lot of fireworks between Russia and the US. The meeting saw the US Secretary of state himself addressing the council pointing out that, "Russia plans to manufacture a pretext for its attack.  This could be a violent event that Russia will blame on Ukraine or an outrageous accusation that Russia will level against the Ukrainian Government". Moscow has been dismissing the West's accusation that Russia will invade Ukraine. Russia was represented by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin at the council. Interestingly, Vershinin was in Delhi a few weeks ago to brief India about the ongoing crisis in Eastern Europe.