March 6, 2014 Russian news agency «RIA Novosti» published report of Russia’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin in which he said that Crimea’s intergration with Russia is a geopolitical act and the majority of the countries recognise it de facto or de jure.
«It is a new geopolitical fact: Crimea has become a part of Russian Federation. No need to launch an energetic campaign here, I think. The majority of countries recognise Crimea’s integration with Russia “de-jure” or “de-facto”, » — he said, answering the question of a Russian television channel NTV journalist about the further steps in word community’s recognition of Crimea.
However, only 11 countries (among them North Korea, Syria, Sudan and Zimbabwe and Russia) voted against «Ukraine Territorial Integrity» resolution during the U.N. General Assembly session.
That is why the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine representatives called the claims of Russia’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin that the majority of countries recognise Crimea’s integrity with Russia «another nonsense and disinformation».
«Either Russian officials are horrible at maths or it is a distortion of facts for the sake of wishful thinking. The real state of affairs was clarified by the voting for “Ukraine Territorial Integrity” resolution during the U.N. General Assembly session on March 27. 47 countries contributed to the creation of the resolution. 100 countries supported the resolution. Only 11 countries (including Russia) — voted against it, » — stated Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine representative.
«Also, this voting “against” by the tiny group of 10 countries does not mean that all those countries recognised the annexation of Crimea by Russia de facto or de jure. We all remember words of Belarus president Alexander Lukashenko (sadly, his country voted “against” the resolution), when he said Belarus has no plans for legal relations with Crimea, » — he added.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also notes «earlier we heard from Mr. Churkin that “93 countries in the U.N. did not support territorial integrity of Ukraine.” That is another nonsense. According to the article 18 of the U.N. Chapter, the decisions of the general assembly are made by the present delegations that vote (“for” or “against”). Therefore, the countries that did not vote when the Ukrainian resolution was reviewed or “abstained”, passed their votes to the majority, for the resolution, thus supporting it, » — underlined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine representative.
Currently there are 193 countries members of the U.N. Among the internationally recognised countries, only the Holy See and State of Palestine are not members of the U.N., among partially recognised: SADR, Taiwan, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Republic of Kosovo, Sovereign Military Order of Malta and Northern Cyprus.
