Focus of India on multilateral agenda at UN: Syed Akbaruddin
India’s Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin on Sunday said India will focus on a multilateral agenda at the high-level UN General Assembly (UNGA) session, that commences on Tuesday. Let Pakistan be a "one-trick pony" on Kashmir if it wants to, he added.
Addressing a news conference, Akbaruddin said the United Nations works best on the basis of multilateralism.
“India's positions based on partnerships get a great resonance", he said on Sunday while responding to a reporter’s query about the possibility of Pakistan raising Kashmir issue at the UNGA.
"If somebody else would like to be a one-trick pony, it is for them to regurgitate that act. We've handled this act many times in the past and are confident we'll do so again," he said.
"Solo players in a multilateral context have neither a past nor a future" and get "no resonance in such matters", he added.
According to reports, Islamabad would bring up Kashmir issue at the UNGA and give "unequivocal support to the cause", Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi had said.
The issue of Kashmir has been raised by Pakistan at all UN forums, regardless of the topic of the meetings.
No other nation however, has joined Pakistan in the issue or even talking about it.
Akbaruddin said that even when India talks about terrorism, it does not treat it as just a bilateral issue but deals with it in the international context of havoc it wreaks around the world, for example the Boko Haram in Africa and terrorist groups elsewhere.
Led by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj at the UN session, India will focus on five topics: reformed multilateralism, climate change action, health, development and peacekeeping, he said.
The external affairs minister is scheduled to address the UNGA on Saturday.
