United Nations, With the UN Security Council members rejecting China’s bid to get it involved in the Kashmir issue, “Pakistan’s practice of using false pretences to distract from addressing the malaise that afflicts it has run its course today”, according to India’s Permanent Representative Syed Akbaruddin.
When China brought up at a Council consultation on Wednesday the Kashmir issue using a letter from Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi with several allegations against India, the other members said the matter was a bilateral issue between New Delhi and Islamabad and the two countries had the mechanisms to deal with their differences and did not need Council intervention.
The Council did not even authorise a press statement about the consultation which is often done after such meetings.
“We are happy that neither the alarmist scenario painted by the representatives of Pakistan nor any of the baseless allegations made repeatedly by representatives of Pakistan in UN fora were found to be credible today.
“We are glad that the effort was viewed as a distraction and it was pointed by many friends that bilateral mechanisms are available to raise and address issues that Pakistan may have in its ties with India,” Akbaruddin said.
This was the third attempt by China to bring the Kashmir issue of behalf of its all “all weather friend” Pakistan before the Council since August 2019 when India abrogated Article 370 of the Indian Constitution that gave Kashmir special status.
The first try that resulted in the Council holding a consultation ended like the one on Wednesday without any statement on the meeting or an acknowledgment of the issue.
Last month, China told the Council members that it will bring up the Kashmir issue at a consultation, but backed out at the last minute when it found no takers.
The letter from Qureshi that China’s Permanent Representative Zhang Jun referred to last month and again on Wednesday alleged in an effort to create a sense of imminent danger that India had removed parts of the fence on the Line of Control in five sectors and deployed Brahmos, anti-tank and other missiles along the line.
