While Foreign Minister S Jaishankar has left the world in suspense over how India will vote on an upcoming UN General Assembly resolution condemning Russia’s annexation of parts of Ukraine, New Delhi has joined the West in voting on three procedural issues.

When UNGA met on Monday morning to discuss the resolution, it was embroiled in a debate over whether the vote should be held by secret ballot, requiring a procedural vote.

Russia fired missiles at Ukraine hours earlier and lost all three votes on procedural issues. The assembly resolution condemning Russia’s annexation of four regions of Ukraine is expected to be voted on at the assembly on Wednesday or Thursday.

This is almost identical to the resolution that Russia vetoed at the Security Council last week. India abstained in the Security Council vote. Albania introduced a motion for a public vote to pre-empt Moscow’s expected move to have parliament decide on the resolution by secret ballot.

It was put to the vote, 107 to 13, with 39 abstentions, despite Russian objections. Russia then called for another vote on the matter, with parliamentary chair Chopper Korosi ruling that the approved public vote motion should be reconsidered.

But before the vote, Russia’s permanent representative, Vasily Nebenzia, opposed Korosi’s ruling, and his challenge was put to the vote. Showing Moscow’s isolation of Ukraine, it lost only by 14 votes, 104 against and 38 abstentions. When the motion to reconsider the public vote was put to vote, it won by 16 votes to 104 against, with 34 abstentions, Moscow’s third defeat of the day.

Asked by reporters earlier in Canberra how India would vote on Russia’s annexation of Ukrainian territory, Jaishankar said: “For prudence and policy reasons, we do not predict the outcome of the vote in advance.”

India’s joining the West’s opposition to Russia on procedural issues doesn’t necessarily portend New Delhi’s neutral vote on substantive matters involving Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

As one diplomat pointed out, procedural votes were unrelated to substantive issues. India joined the West in abstaining from a vote on a resolution that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke remotely but condemned, once in the Security Council and once in Moscow at the conference. Unlike the Council, the General Assembly has no executive powers, but its votes have moral authority.

Shortly after the invasion began, Moscow reacted to a Security Council veto in February when the General Assembly passed a similar resolution condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and demanding its withdrawal.

It passed with 141 votes, with India with 35 abstentions. The West is tasked with bringing this up in this week’s vote.
In calling for a secret ballot, Nebzia said countries faced undue pressure to vote with the West, which would protect those who opposed the resolution but were unable to vote publicly.

During debates over the resolution, Russia and Ukraine called each other terrorist states, and Nebenzia said an explosion occurred at a key bridge linking Crimea, which was annexed in 2014.

Ukraine’s permanent representative, Sergei Kislizia, said that “Russia has once again proved that it is a terrorist state” and that the latest missile attack endangered even his relatives. Countries from Fiji to Mexico who spoke on Monday condemned Russia.