SOURCE: HT
New Delhi on Thursday rejected Beijing’s interference in the country’s internal affairs after China backed a move on behalf of its traditional ally Pakistan to discuss the Kashmir issue at a closed-door meeting of the UN Security Council. China’s pushed for the discussion at the UN Security Council to coincide with the first anniversary on Wednesday of India’s decision to scrap the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and to split it into two union territories. Pakistan had pulled out all stops to rake up the Kashmir issue and observed Wednesday as a “day of exploitation”.
The external affairs ministry said in a statement that “China initiated a discussion in the UN Security Council on issues pertaining to the Indian Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir”.
“We firmly reject China’s interference in our internal affairs and urge it to draw proper conclusions from such infructuous attempts,” the statement said.
The statement further noted that this “was not the first time that China has sought to raise a subject that is solely an internal matter of India”. It added, “As on such previous occasions, this attempt too met with little support from the international community.”
The statement came a day after New Delhi tersely asked Beijing on Wednesday to keep out of the internal affairs of other countries after China contended that India’s “unilateral” changes to the status of Jammu and Kashmir were “illegal and invalid”.
Responding to comments by the Chinese foreign ministry’s spokesperson, external affairs ministry spokesperson Anurag Srivastava had said: “The Chinese side has no locus standi whatsoever on this matter and is advised not to comment on the internal affairs of other nations.”
This was the third time within a year that China raised the Kashmir issue at the UN Security Council using what is known as the “any other business” (AOB) item of the agenda, people familiar with developments said on condition of anonymity. China brought up the issue in August last year and in January. Prior to this, the last time the Kashmir issue was on the Security Council’s agenda was in 1971.
Such items are taken up during informal, closed-door consultations of the Security Council and there are no records of the discussions or formal outcomes, the people said. However, such moves by China in the past have been opposed by France, the US and other permanent members of the Security Council, who have said Kashmir is a bilateral issue between India and Pakistan.
India’s permanent representative to the UN, TS Tirumurti, tweeted: “Another attempt by Pakistan fails! In today’s meeting of UN Security Council which was closed, informal, not recorded and without any outcome, almost all countries underlined that J&K was bilateral issue & did not deserve time and attention of Council.”
The people cited above said members of the Security Council usually do not oppose AOB items as they produce no outcomes. This was the route adopted by Security Council members to discuss the situation in Hong Kong in May.
