In yet another rebuff to Pakistan’s attempt to internationalize Kashmir, the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday said overwhelmingly that the issue should be resolved bilaterally by India and Pakistan
“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 & did not deserve time and attention of Council,” said TS Tirumurti, India’s permanent representative to the UN, in a tweet.
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Pakistan had sought a discussion on Kashmir in a letter to the council which, as some diplomats said, “was match-fixed” to coincide with the anniversary of the revocation of the Article 370. And China, batting for its “all-weather friend”, made it happen as it had before.
This time Pakistan and China had the support also of Indonesia, which ended up agreeing with the others that the dispute needed to be resolved bilaterally, according to a UN diplomat who monitored the meeting.
This was an informal meeting that was held behind closed doors and no records were kept of who said what, which would have happened in a formal meeting.
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“They chose the date carefully but it proved to be a short-sighted move as everyone else came to India’s support,” said another UN diplomat, adding, “everyone felt this needs to be resolved bilaterally and it does not deserve to come to be security council.
The United States, United Kingdom, France and Russia — four of the permanent five countries called for bilateral resolution of the issues, as it Germany. Russia, in fact sough a resolution in keeping with the Simla agreement and the Lahore declaration, said the above cited diplomat.