UNITED NATIONS, December 13./TASS/. Russia has blocked the UN Security Council from passing a resolution linking climate and security issues. The meeting was broadcast by the UN press service.

The resolution was submitted by Ireland and Niger, while overall 113 countries were co-authors. Participants in the meeting told TASS that India had voted against the resolution, along with Russia which used its veto power to block the adoption. China abstained from voting.

"The global community is deeply split on the climate issue," Russian UN Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya said after the voting in comments on Russia’s decision. "This was seen in Glasgow, but then the need to arrive at a consensus forced our Western colleagues to behave democratically, taking into account the positions of all countries. Here we see an anti-democratic attempt to ignore the opinion of those 80 members of the United Nations that did not support the text, to impose on them the position of climate activists," the diplomat stressed.

"This would in fact lead to a deep split, and backsliding on the battle against climate change," Nebenzya noted.

The Russian diplomat stressed that 80 UN members stepped down as co-authors of the resolution, which shows that they didn’t support it.

The last time Russia used its veto power was in July 2020, during a vote on the resolution on cross-border aid to Syria offered by several Western nations. Later, a compromise resolution was passed on the issue. Since then, the right of the veto at the UN Security Council was used only once, this time by the US. On August 31, 2020, a US representative voted against the resolution aimed at advancing measures to prosecute, rehabilitate and reintegrate foreign terrorists. The resolution was co-authored by Russia, China, Belgium, France and Germany.