India says desires 'normal' neighbourly ties with all countries, including Pakistan

India has said it desires “normal" neighbourly relations with all countries, including Pakistan, and asserted that the onus is on Islamabad to create a "conducive atmosphere" and not allow its territory to be used for cross-border terrorism against India in any manner.

The remarks by Counsellor in India’s Permanent Mission to the UN, R Madhu Sudan came at the UN General Assembly meeting on ‘Report of the Security Council for 2020' on Friday.

“India desires normal neighbourly relations with all countries, including Pakistan. Our consistent position is that issues, if any, between India and Pakistan should be resolved bilaterally and peacefully, in an atmosphere free of terror, hostility and violence," Sudan said in the General Assembly.

"The onus is on Pakistan to create such a conducive atmosphere, including by taking credible, verifiable action to not allow any territory under its control to be used for cross-border terrorism against India in any manner,” he added.

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Speaking earlier, Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the UN Munir Akram raised the issue of Jammu and Kashmir during his remarks.

Sudan said it is rather “unfortunate” that Pakistan continued to indulge in “theatrics not befitting” the forum.

“It is clear that the international community is not getting fooled by this delegation anymore,” he said, adding that the country sought to exploit the UNGA forum and “once again raised matters internal to my country.”

Sudan asserted that the decision taken by the Parliament of India on Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh are “matters internal to India.”

India abrogated the special status of Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 on August 5, 2019 and bifurcated it into two Union territories.

India, currently serving a two-year term on the Security Council as a non-permanent member, further said that as a member of the 15-nation Council it will continue its efforts along with other elected members to pursue reforms in the working methods and for better reporting to the General Assembly.

Sudan said the General Assembly debates on the reports of the Security Council time and again have sought more in-depth analysis by the Council of its work in the annual reports.

“Unfortunately, this request has not been heeded to by the Council, whose functioning is based on anachronistic working methods centred around the principle of decision making by consensus. This principle affects mostly the elected members, who ironically hold the majority voice in the Council,” he said.

He said India believes it is important for the Security Council to pay more attention to its report to the General Assembly rather than view it as a mere formality.

“The General Assembly is indeed the most representative organ of the United Nations. The fact that there exists a separate provision in the UN Charter mandating such a report by the Security Council itself shows the importance with which this report is viewed.

"Hence, the annual report of the Security Council must inform, highlight and analyse the measures that it has decided upon or taken to maintain international peace and security during the reporting period.”

India also reiterated the need for analysis of the UN peacekeeping operations, the flagship tool for the maintenance of international peace and security.

“We need more information on how peacekeeping operations are run, the problems they face, on why certain mandates are set or changed, or on when and why they are strengthened, scaled-down or ended. As most peacekeepers are contributed by non-Council members, who put the lives of their troops at risk to serve the cause of international peace, a better partnership between the Security Council and the Troop Contributing Countries (TCCs) is needed,” he said.