The United States of America abstained from a statement by members of the World Trade Organization condemning Russiaʼs aggression in Ukraine.
This was reported to Reuters by diplomatic sources.
This is the first time the US has not supported the statement, which has been published every year since Russiaʼs full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The statement was signed by 44 WTO member countries, including the European Union, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia.
The statement condemns the devastating impact of Russiaʼs full-scale invasion of Ukraine on the lives of the people and the economy of Ukraine.
“We are seriously concerned about the consequences of this destruction for Ukraine and for global trade, in particular for the supply to international markets of a number of key goods produced in Ukraine, including agricultural and food products, fertilizers, and critical minerals,” the statement said.
What preceded
On February 24, the United States voted against a UN General Assembly resolution marking the anniversary of the Russian invasion. Instead, the United States proposed its own resolution, which initially did not call Russia the aggressor and called the war a "conflict".
However, the document was amended, replacing the words “conflict” with “full-scale invasion” and the clause “lasting peace between Ukraine and the Russian Federation” with “a just, lasting and comprehensive peace between Ukraine and the Russian Federation in accordance with the UN Charter and the principles of sovereign equality and territorial integrity of states.” In the end, the US abstained from voting on its own resolution.
In addition, on February 20, the Financial Times wrote that the United States opposed calling Russia an aggressor in the G7 statement dedicated to the third anniversary of the Russian invasion. The NYT subsequently wrote that all pro-Ukrainian language had been removed from the document. In the end, the Group of Seven never published a joint statement.
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