India has abstained from voting in United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on a resolution that exempts humanitarian aid efforts from sanctions.
The draft resolution to exempt humanitarian aid efforts from sanctions and presented by the US and Ireland, was adopted by 14 members of the 15-member Council.
In the explanation of vote India's Permanent Representative to the UN Ruchira Kamboj said that India's concerns were triggered by proven instances of terrorist groups including Pakistan-based terrorist groups Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed "taking full advantage of such humanitarian carve-outs and making a mockery of sanctions regimes."
Khamboj said "There have been several cases of terrorist groups in our neighbourhood, reincarnating themselves as humanitarian organizations and civil society groups precisely to evade the sanctions. These terrorist organizations use the umbrella of the humanitarian assistance space to raise funds and recruit fighters."
Making a veiled reference to Pakistan, Kamboj added that India will call for caution and due diligence be used when providing humanitarian aid to groups that are prohibited under UN Security Council Resolution 1267, who continue to thrive with full state hospitality in territories universally acknowledged as terrorist havens by the international community.
She continued by saying that India has requested the resolution to assure UN oversight of humanitarian exclusions, expertise in "robust reporting," which was not completely addressed in the legislation, and sanctions.
"To prevent such activities, she said, India had called for the resolution to ensure monitoring of humanitarian exemptions by UN experts monitoring sanctions and robust reporting, which were not fully addressed in the text, so India abstained," Kamboj said.
UNSC approved the resolution exempting humanitarian aid from all current and future UN sanctions regimes, a vote the United States hailed as "historic" that will save lives and address longstanding problems of sanctions impeding aid deliveries. The draft resolution was adopted-14 votes in favour, zero against and one absentation.
( With inputs from ANI )
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