Bangladesh votes for UN resolution over Ukraine on `humanitarian ground’

ZOOMBANGLA DESK: Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen today said Bangladesh voted in favour of UN’s resolution demanding halt to “Russia’s war in Ukraine” on “humanitarian ground” .

“The main reason (of voting for) is humanitarian cause . . . Bangladesh is well known all over the world as a humanitarian country,” he told reporters after emerging from a programme in the capital.

The non-binding resolution, drafted by Ukraine and its allies was adopted at the UN headquarters in New York on Thursday where 140 countries voted in favor, 38 abstained and five voted against the measure.

The vote came after the adoption of a similar non-binding resolution on March 2 that demanded Russia immediately ceases its use of force where Bangladesh abstained from voting along with its South Asian neighbors – India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Though Bangladesh voted in favour of the Thursday’s resolution, its three neighbors India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka kept themselves abstained from voting.

China remains abstained from voting in both the resolutions where the same five countries — Russia, Syria, North Korea, Belarus and Eritrea — voted against the resolution Thursday and March 2.

When asked whether Bangladesh shifted its position or not, Dr Momen said, Bangladesh’s position remains the same as Dhaka is always for peace and against war.

The foreign minister said Bangladesh considered the March 2 resolution partisan and it would not be able to put an end to the war … “(SO) we didn’t vote that time”.

He said the Thursday’s resolution was for the welfare of civilians. “We want safety of tortured people and for that we said yes,” he said.

Dr Momen said that the war would have an impact on innocent country like Bangladesh on development and economic activities as all are members of an interdependent system.

“We know from experience that it is the ordinary people who suffer the most in any war,” he added. (BSS)