UNSC Rebuffs Pakistan's Attempt To Raise Kashmir Issue At World Body, Calls For Resolving Dispute Bilaterally

TS Tirumurti, India’s permanent representative to the United Nations took to twitter to underline the fact that almost all countries were of the opinion that J&K was bilateral issue & did not deserve time and attention of United Nation Security Council

United Nations Security Council

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on Wednesday turned down yet another attempt made by Pakistan to raise the contentious issue of Kashmir at the UN body's forum, and backed India's position on the issue by once again reiterating that the long standing territorial dispute should be resolved bilaterally between the sub continent neighbours, India and Pakistan. India once again had the backing of four out of the five permanent security council members as the United States (USA), United Kingdom (UK), France and Russia sided firmly with the nation on the Kashmir issue, as they have done in the past at the UNSC forums over the years. India on Wednesday condemned Pakistan for its "singularly unsuccessful" attempt to rake up the bilateral issue of Kashmir in the United Nations Security Council and said the nation's narrative had lost steam and did not "deserve the time and attention" of the apex UN body. TS Tirumurti, India’s permanent representative to the United Nations took to twitter to underline the fact that almost all countries were of the strong opinion that Jammu and Kashmir was bilateral issue & did not deserve time and attention of Council, which had its meeting held behind closed door and was pretty informal, not recorded and without any outcome. 'Pakistan has once again been singularly unsuccessful in making any inroads into the UN on Jammu and Kashmir and their narrative has lost steam on the Council members," India's Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador T S Tirumurti told ANI.

Pakistan narrative on Kashmir has lost steam with UNSC members, says Indian envoy to UN

Read @ANI Story | https://t.co/Ou8LOEyuzz pic.twitter.com/gN288XGGnX — ANI Digital (@ani_digital) August 5, 2020

Tirumurti had earlier said that almost all the countries at the meeting had agreed that Kashmir was a bilateral issue of India and Pakistan. "Another attempt by Pakistan fails. In today's meeting of UNSC which was closed, informal, not recorded & without any outcome, almost all countries underlined J&K was bilateral issue & did not deserve time & attention of Council," Ambassador Tirumurti posted on Twitter. Meanwhile, a source told ANI that the United States had pressed and stood strong for a "no outcome" meet for which there was a consensus among member countries with agreement by even the Chinese. All the other members of the Council- UK, Germany, Dominican Republic, Vietnam, Indonesia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, France, Estonia and Belgium said that Kashmir is a bilateral issue and must be resolved through a direct dialogue between India and Pakistan. Pakistan has been using various UN forum to raise the issue of Jammu and Kashmir ever since India enacted and passed the law in its Parliament to abrogate Article 370 in the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir and strip it of its special status under the constitution by turning the state into two Union Territories - Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh last year in August. Pakistan escalated its campaign against the abrogation of Articles 370 and 35 A, and had persuaded China, a permanent member of the UNSC to hold a meeting on Kashmir at the UNSC. Following this, the 15-member UN body on Wednesday held a closed-door informal meeting under 'Any Other Business' category, which means literally anything can be brought up by any of the members. No record is maintained and there is no press statement issued for closed-door informal meetings and neither is any formal outcome or resolution taken by the UNSC. Typically, no country objects to a discussion under the 'Any other Business' category. China, which is a permanent member of UNSC also could not stop a discussion on Hong Kong last May.