Once again in a span of five months, China, nudged by Pakistan, held an informal consultation on the Kashmir issue at United Nations Security Council (UNSC) in New York on Wednesday only to be told by the members that Kashmir calls for a bilateral solution. The UNSC’s closed door meeting was called to discuss issues relating to an African country when China brought up Kashmir issue under the agenda “any other business points”.
As per reports, while China’s ambassador to the UN, Zhang Jun cautioned against further escalating tensions between India and Pakistan over Kashmir and said that he hoped that the UNCS will encourage both countries to initiate a dialogue, no other member commented on the same.
As reported by news agency ANI, members of the security council, on condition of anonymity, said that while China wanted a review of UN observer mission in Kashmir, majority of the other members stressing on need to de-escalate tensions, said that the Kashmir issue continues to remain a bilateral issue between India and Pakistan.
This is the second time since August, when India abrogated Article 370 and made erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir integral part of India, that China brought up the Kashmir issue in UNSC. However, the members, led by United States and France thwarted the issue stating that India and Pakistan should resolve it bilaterally.
Syed Akbaruddin, India’s Permanent Representative to the UN, took to Twitter and said that today at UN, our Indian flag is flying high and those who launched a ‘false flag’ got a stinging response from many of our friends. As reported by news agency ANI, Akbaruddin said, “We are happy that neither the alarming scenario painted by the representatives of Pakistan nor any of the baseless allegations made repeatedly by various representatives of Pakistan in UN fora were found to be credible. Pakistan’s tactics of using false credences to distract from addressing the malice that afflicts it has run its course today.”
