Cautious at first during the first days of the invasion of Ukraine, contenting itself with an agreed call for dialogue, Tunisia finally voted in favor of the resolution adopted this evening Wednesday, March 2 by the General Assembly of United Nations. Decryption.
The vote came during its 11th UN emergency session convened over “Russian aggression”. The text demanding the immediate withdrawal of Russian forces from Ukraine was adopted by 141 votes for, 5 against (Russia, Belarus, Eritrea, North Korea, and Syria), and 35 abstentions, including the notable one from Algeria.
This is the first major disagreement in the Tunis-Algiers axis, formed on the sidelines of the rapprochement between Presidents Kais Saïed and Abdelmadjid Tebboune. Reinforced axis since Carthage’s seizure of all powers last summer in Tunisia, and which had notably worked in unison when Tunisia abstained on October 30, 2021, from voting the text of the resolution on the Moroccan Sahara presented by the United States.
For many observers, not only the status of a major non-NATO ally, granted in 2015 to Tunisia, determines this positioning, but the economic crisis and the perilous negotiations in progress with the IMF, currently leave little make way for sovereignist bluster, especially since the Tunisian government recently requested France’s help from international financial bodies.
Return to reason
The Tunisian Ministry of Foreign Affairs explained in the wake of this vote that “ Tunisia has reaffirmed its attachment to peace and dialogue, considering that the military solution has never proven its effectiveness. The signatory countries call for the cessation of military operations in Ukraine in order to protect lives and create the conditions for a peaceful and permanent solution to this crisis,” reads a press release.
“The current crisis in Ukraine comes at a time when the world is preparing to recover from the repercussions of the Covid pandemic and to establish a new phase based on cooperation, solidarity, and commitment in promoting action and achieving common goals. The world cannot sustain more crises of this magnitude and severity,” it reads further, which supports Tunis’ focus on economic considerations at this already perilous phase for the country’s economy.
Because not only does Tunisia import most of its cereal needs (more than 50%) from Ukraine but also from Russia, the 2022 budget of the Tunisian State is also indexed to a barrel of oil at 75 dollars, there where the latter flies well beyond 100 dollars, as a result of the war started by Moscow.
On Wednesday evening, the UN GA issued a statement saying that the resolution adopted by the General Assembly ” reaffirms its commitment to the sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders, extending to its territorial waters”.
Furthermore, it ” deplores in the strongest terms the aggression committed by the Russian Federation against Ukraine in violation of Article 2, paragraph 4, of the Charter of the United Nations and demands that the Russian Federation immediately cease to use force against Ukraine and refrain from any further unlawful threat or use of force against any Member State ”.
The General Assembly also “demands that the Russian Federation immediately, completely and unconditionally withdraw all its military forces from Ukrainian territory within the country’s internationally recognized borders”.
