India silent ahead of crucial vote on Jerusalem in UN General Assembly

India has maintained since 7 December that it follows an independent policy.

India maintained a cautious silence, hours before the UN General Assembly convened to vote on the draft resolution regarding the status of the city of Jerusalem.

Speaking to the media, the Spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said that Arab diplomats have held consultation with India on the vote and the Minister of State for External Affairs M.J. Akbar informed them about India’s traditional policy on Jerusalem.

“We should wait for the voting to happen,” said Raveesh Kumar, Spokesperson of the MEA highlighting that India has policy on Jerusalem which does not come under any third party influence.

The Hindu had earlier reported that Arab diplomats had been reaching out to India to lobby for New Delhi’s vote on the resolution which expresses deep “regret” on the 7 December declaration by US President Donald Trump recognising Jerusalem as the capital of Israel .

“The meeting between Ambassadors of the Arab states and Minister of State for External Affairs M.J. Akbar took place on 11 December to discuss the US position on Jerusalem and on our part, he reiterated India’s position,” said the Spokesperson. India has maintained since 7 December that it follows an independent policy.

The resolution became a contentious issue two days ago at the UN Security Council where US opposed it. US permanent envoy to the UN Nikki Haley declared that the US will “take names” to shame those countries who oppose the US position on Jerusalem. This was followed by President Trump’s Thursday’s statement where he declared that the US may cut financial support to the countries who vote against its position Jerusalem.

“They take hundreds of millions of dollars and even billions of dollars, and then they vote against us. Let them vote against us. We’ll save a lot. We don’t care,” he said in the White House.