The United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday approved a resolution that calls on Russia to immediately withdraw from Ukraine.

The vote was held during an emergency special session of the General Assembly to discuss the Ukraine crisis.  Of the 193 UN member countries, 141 voted in favor of the resolution. Five countries: Russia, Belarus, Syria, North Korea and Eritrea voted against it. Thirty-five nations, including China, abstained from the vote.

The resolution, which is non-binding, “demands?that the Russian Federation immediately, completely, and unconditionally withdraw?all of?its military forces from the territory of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders”.

Zhang Jun, China’s permanent representative to the UN, reiterated that China’s basic position on the Ukraine issue is consistent and unequivocal.

“We always believe that all countries’ sovereignty and territorial integrity should be respected and that international disputes should be resolved peacefully in accordance with the purposes and principles of the UN Charter. The top priority right now is to ease the situation on the ground as much as possible and prevent the situation from escalating or even getting out of control,” Zhang said.

The ambassador noted that Russia and Ukraine have already held their first round of negotiations, and both sides have shown their willingness to continue the negotiations, despite their differences. China welcomes that, Zhang said.

“Faced with the highly complex and sensitive situation, China once again calls on the international community to stick to the overall direction of political settlement and foster an enabling atmosphere and conditions for direct dialogues and negotiations between the parties concerned,” he said.

Any action by the UN and the relevant parties should give priority to regional peace and stability and the universal security of all parties and should play a positive role for de-escalation and diplomatic solutions, Zhang said.

Regrettably, the draft resolution submitted to this emergency special session for vote has not undergone full consultations within the whole membership. Nor does it take into full consideration the history and complexity of the current crisis, he added.

It does not highlight the importance of the principle of indivisible security, or the urgency of promoting political settlement and stepping up diplomatic efforts.

“These are not in line with China’s consistent positions. Therefore we had no choice but to abstain in the voting,” he said.

The final settlement of the Ukraine crisis requires abandoning the Cold War mentality, abandoning the logic of ensuring one’s own security at the expense of others’ security and abandoning the approach of seeking regional security by expanding military blocs, Zhang said.

He emphasized the importance of giving “full attention and respect” to the legitimate security concerns of all countries, and on that basis,?conduct negotiations to put in place a balanced, effective and sustainable European security mechanism.

Blindly exerting pressure and imposing sanctions and creating division and confrontation will only further complicate the situation and result in a rapid negative spillover of the crisis and affect even more countries, Zhang said.

“We call on the international community to take a responsible attitude and promote the relevant parties to immediately return to the track of political settlement and use dialogue and consultation to seek a comprehensive solution to the Ukraine issue. China is ready to continue its constructive role in this regard,” the ambassador said.

The emergency session was called by the 15-member Security Council during a meeting on Feb 27. It was the 11th emergency session that the UN General Assembly has held since 1950.