(TibetanReview.net, Jan19’20) – China said Jan 17 that it sought an informal third review of the Kashmir issue in the UN Security Council (UNSC) the day before because it was keen for regional peace and stability to be maintained and for Pakistan and India to de-escalate their months-long tensions. China sought the review at the behest of its all-weather ally Pakistan even while knowing fully well that India, which views the dispute as a matter for bilateral resolution, was bitterly opposed to its move.
China had earlier sought similar reviews in Aug and Dec 2019 but nothing came of them as the other UNSC members deferred to India’s position.
China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told the media, including outlets from India, that China wanted both Islamabad and New Delhi to get back to the negotiating table to discuss all issues over which both had a dispute, exercise restraint on borders dividing their nations as well as in communication and take steps to restore normalcy in South Asia, reported sputniknews.com Jan 17.
Geng has called China’s UNSC move purely a goodwill gesture, supporting Pakistan’s position that any solution of the Kashmir dispute should take place according to relevant UNSC resolutions and bilateral treaties.
China has objected to New Delhi’s recent decision to end the special status of the state of Jammu and Kashmir to bifurcate it into two centrally ruled territories – Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh – by an Act of parliament.
China sees the altering of Ladakh’s status as a move to reclaim the inhospitable terrain of Aksai Chin region, an about 37,244 square kilometer-territory which it annexed during the 1962 Sino-Indian War to make it parts of other annexed neighbouring territories of Xinjiang and Tibet Autonomous Regions.
