A day after China’s attempt to raise the situation in Jammu and Kashmir — at Pakistan’s behest — failed to yield an outcome as an “overwhelming majority” said it was not the right forum, New Delhi asked Beijing to “seriously reflect” on the global consensus and “refrain” from taking such action in future. Besides France and the US, sources said that UK, Russia and Germany also joined in along with other members to block Beijing’s attempt to get an outcome. Sources said that while UK’s ambivalent position in the UNSC closed-door consultations in August had surprised many — a claim strongly denied by the UK — London’s decision to block Beijing’s attempt sent an important signal to Delhi. For the third time since August, Beijing had raised the J&K issue at a closed-door meeting of the United Nations Security Council late Wednesday. On Thursday, MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar made a sharp comment on Beijing. “China should seriously reflect on this global consensus, draw proper lessons and refrain from taking such action in future,” he said, replying to a question on why India has not reacted strongly to Beijing raising the Kashmir issue at the UNSC. “I suggest that this question should be posed to the Chinese side as well.” He also slammed Pakistan for trying to internationalise the Kashmir issue with the help of China, saying Islamabad’s “desperate” measures to “peddle” baseless allegations and present an alarming scenario about the Valley lacked credibility. “An effort was made by Pakistan through a member of the UNSC to once again misuse the platform of UNSC for discussing a bilateral matter,” he said. “The overwhelming majority of the UNSC members were of the view that UNSC was not the right forum for such issues and this should be discussed bilaterally between India and Pakistan. The informal closed-door meeting, therefore, concluded without any outcome.” He added, “We sincerely hope that the message has gone across loud and clear to Pakistan that if, at all, there is any matter between India and Pakistan that needs to be discussed, it should be discussed bilaterally.” In New York, Chinese ambassador Zhang Jun said: “We had a meeting on J&K. And I’m sure you all know that Foreign Minister of Pakistan wrote letters to the Security Council asking it to pay attention to the current situation in J&K. ” He said China has stated its “position very clearly. We remain concerned about the situation on the ground (in Kashmir).” In Islamabad, Pakistan PM Imran Khan welcomed the UNSC meeting on Kashmir. He SAID the issue “must be resolved in accordance with relevant UN Security Council resolutions and the will of the Kashmiri people”.- With inputs from PTI in New York
