The European Union has urged Malaysia to support the draft resolution in the United Nations General Assembly condemning Russia’s aggression in Ukraine , saying doing so is in the Southeast Asian nation’s own interests. The calls, made at a press briefing on Tuesday by the French, German and other EU ambassadors in Kuala Lumpur, came as other Western envoys across Asia have made similar diplomatic overtures in the past few days. Malaysia is among 15 Asian states, including neighbouring Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam and Thailand, that have either spoken or are due to speak in the extraordinary General Assembly debate. The body, where all 193 UN member states are represented, is debating Russia’s aggression after Moscow last week vetoed a Security Council resolution on the matter. A vote is expected to take place on Wednesday. “We are calling on Malaysia to vote in favour of this resolution,” said Roland Galharague, the French ambassador to Kuala Lumpur. France is the current president of the Council of the EU. Galharague noted that Kuala Lumpur had voted in support of the UN General Assembly resolution 68/262 in 2014 – which reaffirmed the territorial integrity of Ukraine following Russia’s annexation of the Crimean peninsula that year. “If Malaysia voted in favour of the resolution in 2014, then it should vote in favour of the resolution this time around,” Galharague said. What to expect from Asia at UN General Assembly emergency session on Ukraine Unlike the Security Council, which can issue legally binding resolutions, authorise sanctions or military operations, the General Assembly has no real power as its decisions are not binding on member states. Still, countries that back the draft General Assembly resolution being debated say support for it will send a strong signal to Russian President Vladimir Putin that Moscow’s aggression is unacceptable to the international community. The General Assembly debate is being held under a procedure called Uniting for Peace , which can be invoked when a veto-wielding member state in the Security Council uses its veto against a resolution in the high-powered UN body. If we do not unite to stand against it, then we will have … a world where the stronger can just suppress the weaker Peter Blomeyer, German envoy Reuters reported on Monday that the draft resolution – tabled by the United States and Albania – had some 80 cosponsors. Galharague, in his comments, underscored that Malaysia was not part of any formal alliance. That meant that “at the end of the day, the only defence and the ultimate defence of Malaysia lies in the respect of the principles … [of] territorial integrity, sovereignty, political independence and the right to make their own choices”, Galharague said. German ambassador Peter Blomeyer said while Ukraine was some 10,000 kilometres away from Malaysia, Russia’s attack on the Eastern European country had ramifications for Kuala Lumpur. “If we do not unite to stand against it, then we will have … a world where the stronger can just suppress the weaker,” Blomeyer said. Malaysia, like several other Southeast Asian countries, has taken a measured approach in response to Russia’s aggression by choosing not to outrightly condemn Moscow. Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob on Saturday said Kuala Lumpur was “seriously concerned over the escalation of conflict in Ukraine, and strongly urges all concerned parties to immediately take steps to de-escalate and prevent loss of lives and devastation”. In a commentary for the Post on Tuesday, Southeast Asian diplomacy scholar Hoang Thi Ha said some regional states were approaching the matter with an eye on their defence ties with Moscow, and had a “lack of empathy for what they see as a distant conflict”. Speaking at an online event organised by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute on Monday, the retired senior Singaporean diplomat Bilahari Kausikan echoed these sentiments. He said the largely “muted tones of voice” used by Southeast Asian countries reflected the region’s diverse domestic circumstances. “Invasion changes everything and that message is rather diffused in Southeast Asia, partly because of the internal dynamics in the various individual countries,” he said. In the case of junta-ruled Myanmar – which backed Moscow’s invasion – it was a case of “dependence on Russia” while the ambivalence shown by Vietnam was “a bit like India because it has a great stock of Soviet-era weapons of which they need Russia to help them keep functional particularly facing the threat they have from China,” Bilahari said. In Thailand , EU envoys on Monday made representations at the foreign ministry calling on Bangkok to support the General Assembly resolution. Singapore , among the countries that addressed the General Assembly on Monday, said “it will not hesitate to vote yes on this draft resolution”. The city state has also said it plans to impose unilateral sanctions on Moscow . Malaysia’s transport ministry said on Tuesday that the operator of the country’s Kuala Linggi port would decline a Russian-flagged crude oil tanker’s intention to dock to avoid violating any sanctions. Washington and its Western allies have unleashed a series of sanctions on Russia that have been described as the harshest on a major economy in a generation. Additional reporting by Maria Siow