India's Permanent Ambassador to the UN Ambassador TS Tirumurti released his statements made at the UN Security Council regarding the situation in Ukraine. But a surprising response by Netherlands' envoy to the UK Karel van Oosterom took everyone by surprise. Oosterom tried to lecture India over its stance on the Russia-Ukraine war, but was served with a befitting response.
Replying to the statement of Tirumurti at the UNSC meeting on Thursday, Oosterom remarked that India shouldn't have abstained on the resolution and asked to follow the UN Charter. But Oosterom's remarks didn't go unanswered. In fact, Oosterom was silenced with one reply of the Indian envoy, so much so that the former deleted his unsolicited advice.
"Kindly don't patronise us Ambassador. We know what to do," Tirumurti wrote. Oosterom deleted his tweet shortly after the retort.
India's stand on Ukraine-Russia conflict
The Twitter spat came hours after Tirumurti addressed the Security Council where he reiterated New Delhi's neutral stance and said: "India remains on the side of peace and therefore believes that there will be no winning side in this conflict and while those impacted by this conflict will continue to suffer, diplomacy will be a lasting casualty."
Tirumurti said India "has strongly condemned the killing of civilians in Bucha and supported the call for an independent investigation". He also said that India welcomed UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' visits to Moscow and Kiev late last month for meetings with the leaders of the two warring countries.
The envoy praised the UN evacuation of civilians from the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol and said: "We hope these efforts will extend to other areas as well."
The latest abstentation from India came on April 7 when the General Assembly voted to suspend Russia from the Human Rights Council. This was India's eighth abstention on actions at the UN related to the Russia-Ukraine war.
