Unlike other General Assembly resolutions, this time China did not abstain and voted against. This marks an important change in China’s foreign policy.
United States President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping have met today in Bali, Indonesia ahead of the G20 summit. They shook hands in a friendly manner, but a recent diplomatic development might tamper relations between the two powers.
On Monday, the UN General Assembly voted on a resolution regarding the responsibility of Russia for the invasion of Ukraine. The text, published by Associated Press last week, also includes a mechanism for war reparations to Ukraine.
China, which so far has never either condemned or supported Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, has voted against this resolution. This marks a change in China’s foreign policy, striving away from the calm ambiguity shown until now.
In any case, the resolution itself passed with an overwhelming majority. Only 11 other countries voted against, including North Korea, Iran and, obviously, Russia.
In the last UN resolution, regarding the illegality of Russian annexation of occupied territories, China abstained. The same happened last March in the Resolution regarding Russian responsibility for the humanitarian crisis.
The only other time China voted against a similar resolution was on April 7th. It was regarding Russia’s membership of the Human Rights Watch, and even if it was approved it saw the highest amount of contrarian votes (24).
This move shows that, despite any spoken agreement taken between Biden and Xi at the G20, China is not an ally of the west. On the contrary, it looks more and more like China will become an “official” Russian ally. And with Western fears that China might invade Taiwan, the war in Ukraine becomes ever more central on the geopolitical chessboard.
What did the resolution say
As every other resolution on Ukraine proposed at the UN General Assembly so far, this one holds Russia accountable for the conflict. Proposed by Canada, Guatemala, the Netherlands and Ukraine, the resolution recognizes the “sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity” of the Ukrainian state. It further calls for an immediate cease of Russian force on Ukrainian soil.
More importantly, however, the resolution recognizes the need for a mechanism of war reparation to Ukraine. The damage done by the war is immense, close to 350 billion dollars in a recent World Bank report.
Such damages, which arose from Russia’s “wrongful acts”, should be repaired after an internationally held register is drafted.
Being a General Assembly resolution, Russia cannot use its veto power. That prerogative is reserved for Security Council decisions, not the General Assembly. At the same time, however, such resolutions do not have a legally binding value and only serve to show the world’s opinion on an issue.
And China, today, has made her position very clear.
