Pakistan on Tuesday voiced severe disapproval of India’s choice to host the G20 summit in the UT of Jammu and Kashmir. The country stated that India holding G20 summit in what it blatantly called the ‘Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK)’ is disconcerting. The G20 Tourism Working Group meeting will take place in Srinagar from May 22–24, 2023, according to the announcement from the Narendra Modi administration.
The schedule of two additional sessions of the Y-20 consultative youth forum in Leh and Srinagar has also drawn criticism from Pakistan, who claim it is similarly disconcerting. IIOJK is a propaganda term used by Pakistan and its media when discussing about Kashmir in India.
Releasing an official statement in the matter, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry criticized India’s action and said it continued its ‘illegal occupation’ of Jammu and Kashmir. It added that such incidents could not obscure the fact that Jammu and Kashmir is a recognized international dispute that has been on the UN Security Council’s agenda for more than 70 years.
You know India as #G20 host is achieving mighty success when… pic.twitter.com/trGrpLEGhv
— Aditya Raj Kaul (@AdityaRajKaul) April 11, 2023
Along with breaking the UN Charter and international law, India was charged in the statement of exploiting its membership in a significant international organisation to further its own ‘self-serving’ interests.
Pakistan has also informed other Group-20 (G20) members of its reluctance about India hosting a tourism conference in Srinagar. Pakistan claimed that Srinagar is a part of the ‘disputed territory’ and that the UN Security Council is considering a resolution against India’s occupation of some areas of Kashmir. Therefore, no such international gathering could be held in established disputed areas, the statement added.
India has set the date for the G20 summit in Srinagar. India said the working group meeting on tourism will take place in Srinagar from May 22 to 24 in an update to the G20 calendar on Friday. In the past, New Delhi has made plans for organizing a number of summits, including one in the Run of Kutch.
India’s plan to host G20 has been criticized by Pakistan as well as China. Pakistan is gathering information and plans to raise the issue at global forums while it is known that Pakistan and China are in communication with one another over the issue.
Earlier in the year 2022, India reiterated its often-stated position and had told the United Nations that Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India. The country had also urged Pakistan to vacate the illegally occupied areas in the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) region.
“Entire Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh were, are, and will always be an integral part of India, irrespective of what Pakistan representative believes… We call upon Pakistan to immediately vacate all areas under its illegal occupation,” R Madhusudan, Counsellor at Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations had said at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).
Madhusudan also back then had said that Pakistan has been globally recognised as the sponsor of terrorism and some of the most horrific terror attacks across the globe trace their origins to Pakistan. He was responding to allegations by Pakistan’s representative at the UN Munir Akram, who, in his statements claimed that India was sponsoring terrorism in Pakistan.
