Article 370: UNSC Holds Close Consultations On Kashmir

Days after Pakistan wrote a letter to the United Nations on India revoking the special status of Jammu and Kashmir, the UN Security Council met here on Friday to discuss the issue.

Days after Pakistan wrote a letter to the United Nations on India revoking the special status of Jammu and Kashmir, the UN Security Council will meet here on Friday to discuss the issue. Photo: AFP

UNITED NATIONS: Days after Pakistan wrote a letter to the United Nations on India revoking the special status of Jammu and Kashmir, the UN Security Council met here on Friday to discuss the issue. News agency PTI quoted a UN diplomat as saying that China, the all-weather ally of Pakistan, had asked for closed consultations on the Security Council agenda item 'India Pakistan Question'. China has asked for "closed consultations" in the Council, which met at 10 am (7:30pm IST) to discuss the matter. Like Pakistan, China also has a dispute with India over Kashmir having claimed Aksai Chin in Ladakh, which it now controls. Pakistan signed a deal with China in 1963 recognising Chinese sovereignty over some areas of Kashmir it had occupied. "The request was in reference to the Pakistani letter to Security Council President," the diplomat said. The Council's schedule said "Security Council consultations (closed) India/Pakistan", listed for 10 am. Closed meetings are not open to the public and no verbatim record of statements is kept. Consultations are informal meetings of the Security Council members and are not covered in the Repertoire. The Repertoire, mandated by the General Assembly, provides comprehensive coverage of the Security Council's interpretation and application of the United Nations Charter and its own Provisional Rules of Procedure since 1946. Its primary purpose is to provide Member States, including those elected to serve on the Security Council, the United Nations system, academics and others with a source of information regarding the evolving practice of the Security Council. Pakistan had asked for a full-fledged meeting of the Council at which it could speak on Kashmir following New Delhi's decision to rescind Kashmir's special status under Articles 370 and 35A of the Constitution. Except China, all the other four permanent members of the Council have openly backed New Delhi's position that disputes between India and Pakistan are bilateral matters, with the United States even saying that the Kashmir developments are an internal matter of India. After finding that none of the other members of the Council wanted the full-fledged session that Pakistan had requested, China made its own request for the scaled-down closed-door consultation, which would preclude Pakistan speaking at it, according to a diplomat with knowledge of the Council workings. According to UN records, the last time "the Security Council addressed the dispute between India and Pakistan over the territories of Jammu and Kashmir under agenda item 'The India-Pakistan question' was in 1964-65. Then, by a letter dated January 16, 1964, the representative of Pakistan had requested the President of the Council to "convene an immediate meeting" of the Council to consider the Kashmir situation. India had asserted that the Pakistani request was "a propaganda move." The issue of Kashmir was also raised under a separate agenda item 'Situation in the India/Pakistan subcontinent' in 1969-1971.  Following India's decision to revoke the special status of Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan formally called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss India, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has said. Qureshi has sent a formal letter to the president of the Security Council, Polish Ambassador Joanna Wronecka, through country's Permanent Representative Maleha Lodhi to convene the meeting. Qureshi said the letter will also be shared with all members of the UNSC. Qureshi had air-dashed to Beijing for consultation with the Chinese leadership on the issue of raising the Kashmir issue at the UNSC. He had also said that China backed Pakistan on the issue and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang told him he believed "China will stand up for justice on the Kashmir issue". (With inputs from PTI & IANS)