China forced to withdraw UN Security Council discussion of Kashmir issue

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UN Security Council.

(TibetanReview.net, Dec18’19) – China’s latest move to take India to the UN Security Council (UNSC) at the behest of its superlative friend Pakistan over the Kashmir issue has come a cropper after it was left with no choice but to withdraw its request for a meeting. The meeting was otherwise to be held on Dec 17.

But other members, led by France, shot down the proposal, insisting the dispute should be thrashed out between India and Pakistan.

The Dec 17 meeting, if held, would have been the second closed-door meeting of the UNSC on Kashmir since consultations were first held on Aug 16.

“Our (France’s) position has been very clear – the Kashmir issue has to be treated bilaterally. We have highlighted this several times recently, including in New York,” hindustantimes.com Dec 17 quoted a French official as telling the media.

The latest Chinese move began with a Dec 12 letter to the UNSC from Pakistan’s foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, expressing concern over a possible escalation of tensions in Kashmir. Following it, China’s UN mission wrote in a note to members of the Security Council: “In view of the seriousness of the situation and the risk of further escalation, China would like to echo the request of Pakistan, and request a briefing of the Council… on the situation of Jammu & Kashmir.”

The discussion would not have involved a vote.

Beijing itself has been furious over the recent reorganization of the state of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh into two centrally ruled union territories, blasting it as “unlawful and void.”

That was because China disputes India’s sovereignty over parts of Ladakh held by it, an area between occupied Tibet and Pakistan, the Aksai Chin.

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