India asks China to learn lesson from its repeated failures to raise Jammu and Kashmir issue at UN Security Council

India on Thursday advised China to learn a lesson from the failures it experienced while repeatedly trying on behalf of its “iron brother” Pakistan to bring the issue of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) back on the agenda of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).

Beijing’s latest move at the behest of Islamabad to get the Security Council formally discuss the issue of J&K fell flat on Wednesday. The UNSC did discuss the issue informally without any recorded outcome, with most of the members underlining that it was a bilateral issue between India and Pakistan and not a matter to be discussed by the council.

“This was not the first time that China has sought to raise a subject that is solely an internal matter of India. As on such previous occasions, this attempt too met with little support from the international community,” Anurag Srivastava, the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, said in New Delhi. “We firmly reject China’s interference in our internal affairs and urge it to draw proper conclusions from such infructuous attempts.”

READ: Pakistan, China reiterate opposition to India's Jammu and Kashmir move

Pakistan got China – one of the five permanent members of the UNSC – to make an attempt to raise the issue during a meeting of the council under the category of “Any Other Business” on the agenda – ostensibly to embarrass India, on the first anniversary of New Delhi’s August 5, 2019 move to strip J&K of its special status and reorganize the state into two Union Territories.

“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 & (and) did not deserve time and attention of (the) Council,” tweeted T S Tirumurti, India’s permanent representative to the United Nations in New York.

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China’s move fell flat as Russia, France, the United Kingdom and the United States – the four other permanent members of the Security Council – opposed any formal discussion on the issue of J&K, arguing that it should be resolved bilaterally by India and Pakistan. Turkey is among the UNSC’s few non-permanent members, which supported the move by China.

This was the third such attempt Pakistan and its “all-weather ally” China to bring back the J&K issue back on the UNSC’s table since August 5 last year. New Delhi has been steadfastly resisting such moves by Pakistan and China. It has been maintaining that the 1972 Shimla Agreement between India and Pakistan and the 1999 Lahore Declaration by the two sides had left no scope for the UN or any third party to play any role in resolving the “outstanding issues” between the two South Asian neighbours.

Beijing on Wednesday sought the discussion in the UNSC on the J&K issue following a letter Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi recently wrote to the President of the Security Council. Qureshi accused India’s security forces of brazenly violating human rights of people in J&K. He suggested that the council should discuss the issue urgently.

Qureshi, however, held a late-night news conference in Islamabad on Wednesday and highlighted the “discussion” in the UNSC on the J&K issue as a diplomatic victory for Pakistan. He claimed that 14 out the 15 members of the Security Council participated in the discussion. New Delhi did try to scuttle the move for the discussion on the issue in the council, but failed, claimed the Foreign Minister of Pakistan.