The UN Security Council on Monday did not support a Russian-Chinese resolution on an international investigation into the sabotage of the Nord Streams.
The resolution was supported by Russia, China and Brazil; no one voted against it, while Albania, Great Britain, Gabon, Ghana, Malta, Mozambique, UAE, USA, France, Switzerland, Ecuador, and Japan abstained.
The resolution was also co-authored by Belarus, the DPRK, Eritrea, Nicaragua, Syria and Venezuela. However, they are not members of the UN Security Council and did not participate in the vote.
It is currently known that Sweden, Denmark and Germany are conducting their own investigations into the incident.
8 February 2023, 13:28 GMT
Earlier, First Deputy Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the UN Dmitry Polyanskiy said that Russia had been diligently working on the text for a month, removing all contradictory points for "constructively-minded partners." Now Western countries, which demonstratively did not join this work, are left with only one "argument" - that an international investigation is not required because they trust the investigations of Germany, Denmark and Sweden, the Russian representative said.
If the resolution had been adopted, the Security Council would have asked "the UN Secretary-General to establish an international independent commission of inquiry to conduct a comprehensive, transparent and impartial international investigation into all aspects of the act of sabotage on the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 pipelines, including the identification of perpetrators, sponsors, organizers and accomplices.
The UN Secretary-General would have been given 30 days to report to the Council on the modalities of establishing such a commission. If adopted, the Security Council would call on "UN member states, including those conducting their respective national investigations, to fully cooperate and share information with the Commission."
According to the document, the UNSC would also call for "the involvement of relevant parties in the investigations that some states are conducting."
In addition, as noted in the draft resolution, the Security Council stresses that "all those responsible for organizing, financing and carrying out this act of sabotage must be brought to justice.
In September 2022, underwater blasts occurred at three of the four strings of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 underwater pipelines built to carry a combined 110 billion cubic meters of Russian gas to Europe annually.