India abstains as Russia seeks vote on new probe into ex-spy's death

New Delhi: India abstained from voting on a Russian proposal for a new and joint investigation into the poisoning of ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in England. The motion was voted down at the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), an international chemical weapons watchdog, at The Hague.

Russia lost the vote 6-15, with 17 abstentions. India was one of them, persons familiar with the matter toldET. China, Azerbaijan, Sudan, Algeria and Iran were among the countries that backed the Russian proposal. “The votes backing Russia and the abstentions showed that more than half of the council refused to associate themselves with the West’s point of view,” said Russia’s OPCW ambassador Aleksander Shulgin. He said the UK had told the council “a dirty flow of complete lies... ”

Russia had sought the meeting to challenge the UK, which has blamed Moscow for the March 4 poisoning in Salisbury, southern England. Indian ambassador to Netherlands Venu Rajamony said: “India has taken note of the allegations about the recent use of chemical weapons in the United Kingdom. Any use of chemical weapons is in complete disregard of humanity... India is against the use of chemical weapons anywhere.” “India, as all other countries, should await the outcome of the investigation.”