Snubbed, Dutch envoy deletes tweet on India

New Delhi, May 6

Dutch Ambassador to the UK Karel van Oosterom was forced to delete his tweet questioning India’s stand on Ukraine following a determined pushback from the Indian diplomatic community, serving and retired.

After India’s Permanent Representative to the UN TS Tirumurti had posted the speech he delivered at the UN Security Council debate on Ukraine on Thursday, the Dutch envoy, in an unsolicited comment, had written: “You should not have abstained in the General Assembly. Respect the UN Charter”.

Tirumurti did not let go of the slight and replied: “Kindly don’t patronise us, Ambassador. We know what to do.”

Sources found it odd that the Dutch envoy had to make his views known when President Ram Nath Kovind had visited the Netherlands just last month and had presumably discussed the Ukraine issue with the Netherlands’ top leadership. Moreover, the interjection by a European envoy also seems strange when PM Narendra Modi has interacted with half a dozen PMs from the region and discussed Ukraine threadbare.

At the UNSC, Tirumurti 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.” He reminded that India had strongly condemned the killing of civilians in Bucha and supported the call for an independent investigation.

India had welcomed UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ visits to Moscow and Kiev late last month, Tirumurti added while praising the UN evacuation of civilians from Mariupol. India has so far abstained eight times at various UN forums on the Russia-Ukraine war.

‘Stop patronising us over Ukraine’

“Kindly don’t patronise us, Ambassador. We know what to do,” India’s Permanent Representative to the UN TS Tirumurti said in response to a tweet questioning India’s stand on Ukraine by Ambassador of Netherlands to the UK Karel van Oosterom