JOIN USIndia, Pak lobby with UNSC members ahead of meet
India and Pakistan ran hectic diplomatic campaigns before the United Nations Security Council held a closed-door consultation on Friday on New Delhi's recent moves on Jammu and Kashmir.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had a meeting with United States Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan in New Delhi – just hours before the Security Council commenced the closed-door consultation at the headquarters of the United Nations in New York. He spoke to Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Borrell and urged him to make it sure that Spain, currently a non-permanent member of the Security Council, takes a stand favourable to India.
Just before the UNSC closed-door consultation commenced, New Delhi got J&K Chief Secretary B V R Subrahmanyam to announce phased easing of restrictions imposed on the state – ostensibly to blunt Pakistan Government's allegations on communication lockdown and violation of human rights in the state.
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, on the other hand, called up American President Donald Trump and subtly conveyed that his government's future role in facilitating the peace process pursued by the US with Taliban in Pakistan might depend on the stand Washington D.C. would take at the UNSC closed-door meeting in New York.
He also spoke to his counterparts in four of the five UNSC permanent members except for French President Emmanuel Macron, according to a statement by Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi.
New Delhi and Islamabad have also been in touch with other senior officials of Trump Administration in Washington D.C. ever since the Security Council scheduled the closed-door consultation on the decision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Government to strip J&K of its special status and reorganizing the state intro two Union Territories.
China nudged the UNSC to hold the closed-door consultation to take a call on Pakistan Foreign Minister's plea that the Security Council should hold an emergency session to discuss the issue of J&K in view of the “unilateral”, “illegal” and “unacceptable” decisions by Modi Government in New Delhi.
New Delhi reached out to all the five permanent members – US, China, Russia, France and the United Kingdom – as well as most of the 10 non-permanent members of the UNSC in order to make it sure that the closed-door consultation does not lead to the formal return of the J&K issue on the Horse-Shoe Table. Pakistan too stepped up the diplomatic campaign against India and it was tacitly supported by China.
The UNSC has not formally discussed the issue of Kashmir for decades. India has been maintaining that its 1972 Simla Agreement with Pakistan left no scope for the UN or any other third party to play any role in resolving bilateral disputes, including the issue of Kashmir.
New Delhi conveyed to the permanent and non-permanent members of the UN Security Council that its decisions on J&K were “internal” affairs of India. It argued that the recent decisions were not intended to make any new territorial claim along India's disputed borders with Pakistan and China.
Jaishankar, who earlier spoke to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, reiterated to Sullivan on Friday that Modi Government's decision was aimed at combating cross-border terrorism Pakistan exports to India as well as ensuring good governance and development in J&K. Sullivan was accompanied by Alice Wells, acting US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, and US ambassador to India, Ken Juster.