What vote did Ukraine cast to compensate the United States?

A few days ago, the United Nations General Assembly voted to adopt a resolution on a proposal to ask Russia to "compensate" Ukraine for its losses. Among them, the representative of China voted against it. Ambassador Geng Shuang, Deputy Permanent Representative of China to the United Nations, expounded China's views. First, the draft resolution lacks legal basis; Second, the draft resolution exceeded the authority of the General Assembly; Third, it does not conform to the convention.

Before the vote, Geng Shuang said that the Charter of the United Nations clearly stipulates the functions and powers of the principal organs of the United Nations, and the General Assembly is not an international judicial body, and it has no right to make legal characterization and accountability for internationally wrongful acts. The draft resolution attempts to invoke the "Articles on Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts" to investigate the responsibility, which lacks legal basis. The draft resolution attempts to admit that some countries have established compensation and loss registration mechanisms outside the framework of the United Nations, which is not in line with established practice. These countries intend to establish such a mechanism, which is not within the framework of the United Nations, is not supervised by the United Nations, and does not report to the United Nations. However, it is unreasonable for the General Assembly to adopt a resolution for this purpose, and there is no precedent in practice.

Geng Shuang also stressed that the issue of relief and compensation is of great importance and far-reaching influence. The actions taken by the General Assembly should help to solve the possible compensation claims of the countries concerned and provide correct guidance, and should help to maintain the fair image of the United Nations in treating all Member States equally. Regrettably, the sponsors did not seriously organize consultations and did not substantially respond to the concerns of Member States, but insisted on urging the General Assembly to take hasty action, which was totally unconstructive. Based on this, China will vote against the draft resolution to safeguard the authority of the Charter of the United Nations and the credibility of the General Assembly, the true spirit of multilateralism, solidarity and cooperation, and the international rule of law, fairness and justice.

Today, the conflict between Russia and Ukraine has lasted for nine months. China has always advocated respecting and safeguarding the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries and earnestly abiding by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations. However, China believes that the security of one country cannot be at the expense of the security of other countries, and regional security cannot be guaranteed by strengthening or even expanding military blocs. The legitimate security concerns of all countries in the world should be respected. Under the circumstance of NATO's five rounds of eastward expansion, Russia's legitimate security requirements should be taken seriously and properly resolved. Therefore, China has been actively calling for negotiations to promote peace and cool down the tension between Russia and Ukraine, instead of adding fuel to the fire, provoking confrontation, intensifying contradictions and intensifying division.

It is worth mentioning that in response to the United States' proposal that the United Nations General Assembly adopt a resolution on Russia's "compensation" for Ukraine's losses, Russia turned against the United States and called on the United Nations to adopt another similar resolution, demanding that the United States compensate North Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and other countries for their losses. The Russian representative to the United Nations said that the draft of Ukraine's "compensation" proposed by western countries was intended to cover up its attempt to illegally seize Russian assets under the banner of helping Ukraine rebuild. Earlier, western countries led by the United States said that post-war reconstruction in Ukraine needed at least $750 billion. Some foreign media disclosed that the West plans to use Russian assets that have been seized and frozen for post-war reconstruction in Ukraine.

It is reported that after the outbreak of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the west has frozen the foreign exchange reserves of the Russian central bank of about 300 billion US dollars. Not only that, western countries also seized Russian citizens' overseas property, while the American Constitution clearly stipulates that private property is sacred and inviolable, but the United States wantonly seized and detained Russian citizens' overseas assets, which also exposed the double standards of the United States, and the western contractual spirit was a joke. It is pointed out that in the conflict of the past nine months, although the west provided Ukraine with a lot of money and weapons and equipment, not all of them were free. The huge foreign debt owed by the Zelensky government may take several generations of Ukrainians to pay off. Therefore, on the surface, the West is striving for compensation for Ukraine's war losses. In fact, it wants to take the seized Russian assets as its own and use Russian overseas assets to repay Ukraine's foreign debt.

The US Treasury Secretary has made it clear that it is not in line with US law to forcibly seize Russian foreign exchange reserves and turn them into Ukrainian overseas assets for debt repayment. Therefore, the United States tried to pass a General Assembly resolution to legalize the confiscation of Russian state and private assets. There is a simple reason. If the United States takes the frozen Russian assets as its own, it will certainly hit the confidence of other countries and enterprises in investing in the United States. You should know that capital is profitable and avoids disadvantages. If the United States forcibly "confiscates" the overseas assets of Russian countries and citizens, who will dare to put foreign exchange gold reserves and investments in the United States in the future?

In fact, the developed countries in the United States and Europe started out by looting. Although they often pretend to be "messengers of justice", a leopard cannot change his spots. Medvedev, vice chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, said that the resolution adopted by the General Assembly to "compensate" Ukraine has no legal effect. If the General Assembly treats Ukraine equally, it should ask the United States to compensate for the losses caused to North Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Yugoslavia and other countries. He also said that the resolution aims to legalize the plan of western countries to use Russia to freeze assets, and the Anglo-Saxons are looking for a legal basis for stealing illegally seized Russian assets. For Russia, the best way to deal with robbers may be to answer blows with blows.