New Delhi: “Kindly don’t patronize us Ambassador. We know what to do,” asserted India’s Permanent Representative to the UN, T S Tirumurti, in response to a tweet from Dutch Ambassador to the UK and Northern Ireland, Karel van Oosterom.
In a tweet late Thursday (May 5), Oosterom said: “You (India) should not have abstained in the GA. Respect the UN Charter.”
Tirumurti shot back to the tweet, replying, “Kindly don’t patronize us Ambassador”.
Kindly don’t patronize us Ambassador. We know what to do.
— Amb T S Tirumurti (@ambtstirumurti) May 5, 2022
He asserted that the Indian government and nation “know what to do”.
The Twitter spat came hours after Tirumurti addressed the UN Security Council meeting, 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 also said, “India has strongly condemned the killing of civilians in Bucha and supported the call for an independent investigation.”
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.”
External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar articulated his views on the Russia-Ukraine conflict last month, saying,”….. this is a wake-up call for Europe to start looking at Asia. This is a part of the world with unsettled boundaries, terrorism, and continuous challenges to the rules-based order. The rest of the world has to recognise that problems are not ‘going to happen’, but that they are happening.”
New Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra has underlined India’s stand, saying, “I think insofar as India’s position on Ukraine is concerned, it has been amplified, made clear, enunciated in great detail in multiple fora.”
