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Tommy Koh, the former Singapore Ambassador to the United Nations and current Ambassador-at-large, has voiced his concerns about the acceptance shown by "so many" Singaporeans for the Russian-Chinese narrative of the war in Ukraine.

Russian-Chinese narrative blaming NATO for war is "without facts"

In a Facebook post put up on Apr. 8, he noted that many of them blamed the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) for the war and added that this is a narrative "without merit".

Koh wrote: "The truth is that Ukraine has been an independent country since 1991. Russia recognised Ukraine’s independence and supported it’s application to join the UN."

Koh's views were put forth in an op-ed published by The Straits Times on the same day.

In it, he also elaborated that the Russian-Chinese narrative of blaming NATO for the war is "without facts" as there is no law or principle which forbids Russia's neighbours from joining NATO, and that they are free and sovereign countries that can chart their own paths.

In addition, Russia also signed a document in 1999, known as the Istanbul Document of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which acknowledged Ukraine's right to determine its own security arrangements.

Russia therefore has no right to interfere in the decisions of its neighbours and NATO is not to be blamed, Koh said.

"The fact that they were once ruled by Russia does not mean that they will have to live forever under the domination of Russia," he wrote on Facebook.

Rather, the issue is that Russia has not yet accepted the loss of its empire, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), he said.

Small countries cannot be neutral over violations of the UN Charter

Koh also addressed another argument enjoying some support on local social media, which is that Singapore should remain neutral in the conflict and not impose sanctions on Russia because it is a small country.

Here, Koh said small countries need the protection of the United Nations (UN) Charter principle and international law more than big countries.

Small countries must make themselves heard when these principles are violated, he added.

In citing Singapore's own stance, Koh highlighted how Singapore had spoken up over Vietnam's invasion of Cambodia, the USSR's invasion of Afghanistan and the U.S. invasion of Grenada.

Koh also quoted Singapore's first foreign minister, the late S. Rajaratnam on neutrality, noting that "non-alignment" only applied to "narrow power bloc interests" and not the UN Charter.

Should neutrality be the stance taken over violations of the UN Charter, this will destroy the integrity of the UN.

Neutrality, therefore, cannot be the stance regarding the "basic tenets" of this charter, Koh concluded.

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Top collage left photo via Tommy Koh Facebook, right photo via Chris McGrath/Getty Images