St. Vincent and the Grenadines is one of two Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries which have been explaining the reasons why they abstained in a United Nations General Assembly vote re-affirming Ukraine’s territorial integrity.
The UN General Assembly adopted a measure underscoring that the mid-March referendum in Crimea that led to the peninsula’s annexation by Russia “has no validity”. St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Jamaica were among the 58 countries that abstained during the vote on Thursday.
By a vote of 100 in favour to 11 against, with 58 abstentions, the 193-member General Assembly called on all States, international organizations and specialized agencies not to recognize any alteration of the status of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol on the basis of the March 16 referendum.
The General Assembly also voted to “refrain from any action or dealing that might be interpreted as recognizing any such altered status.”
In explaining this country’s abstention on the vote, St. Vincent and the Grenadines Ambassador to the United Nations, Rhonda King said the Government has viewed the recent events in Crimea and Ukraine with “great concern.”
She reiterated the call made by the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) in a March 5 statement calling for the “pacific settlement of disputes and respect of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
Ambassador King said St. Vincent and the Grenadines has “long advocated and advanced the principle of territorial integrity, even in the case of ongoing civil war and sectarian unrest.”
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