‘China Should Refrain From Such Action’: MEA After UNSC Raises J&K
On Wednesday, China – Pakistan’s ‘all-weather ally’ – made a fresh pitch to raise the Kashmir issue at UNSC.
The Ministry of External Affairs on Thursday, 16 January, said that Pakistan tried to misuse the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) meet, after Pakistan PM Imran Khan said that he 'welcomes the UNSC discussing the situation in Jammu and Kashmir.
"An attempt was made by Pakistan to misuse UNSC. Islamabad has a choice to avoid such global embarrassment in future," MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said, indicating that the neighbouring country should stop bringing up bilateral issues in international forums.
Earlier, India's Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador, Syed Akbaruddin also slammed Pakistan, saying, "We once again saw an effort made by one member state of the UN, fail in plain view of all others.”
“We are happy that neither alarmist scenario painted by the representatives of Pakistan nor any of the baseless allegations made repeatedly by representatives of Pakistan in the UN fora were found to be credible today,” Akbaruddin told PTI.
Khan ‘Welcomes UNSC Discussing Situation in J&K’
Meanwhile, Pakistan PM Imran Khan said on Thursday that he “welcomed the UNSC discussing the situation in Jammu and Kashmir again.”
"J&K dispute must be resolved in accordance with relevant UN Security Council resolutions & the will of the Kashmiri people. We will continue to provide moral, political and diplomatic support to the Kashmiri people until they secure their inalienable right to self-determination," Khan had tweeted.
On Wednesday, China – Pakistan’s ‘all-weather ally’ – made a fresh pitch to raise the Kashmir issue under “other matters” during closed consultations in the Security Council Consultations Room. Other member countries reportedly felt that Kashmir is a bilateral matter between India and Pakistan.
Kashmir Discussion ‘Low Key’: European Source
A European source, heading into the Security Council meeting, had described the discussions on Kashmir during the closed consultations to be "low key."
A top European diplomat said that the issue should be resolved bilaterally and it was a "domestic affair."
Meanwhile, Chinese ambassador on Zhang Jun said:
"The issue of India and Pakistan has always been on the agenda of the Security Council and today we have also seen some tensions, so the Security Council had a briefing and heard at the briefing from the Secretariat concerning the current situation on the ground. Members exchanged views on that".
Third Such Attempt
The current move by China was the third such attempt since August when the special status granted to Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 of the Constitution was scrapped by the government, and the state was bifurcated into two union territories.
In August, China pushed for a UNSC meeting on Kashmir after the government scrapped J&K's special status. However, the meeting did not yield desired results for China as the member-states maintained that India's move was an internal issue.
Last month, France, US, UK and Russia foiled an attempt by China to discuss Kashmir at a closed-door meeting of the UNSC.
China has been critical of India's reorganisation of J&K, and has particularly criticised New Delhi for making Ladakh a union territory. China lays claim over several parts of Ladakh.
(With inputs from PTI.)
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