UNSC to hold closed-door meeting on Kashmir today
The UN Security Council on Friday is slated to hold a closed-door meeting to discuss India's move to revoke Article 370 of its Constitution that gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir, media reports said Thursday. Talking to reporters, UNSC President Joanna Wronecka said they would discuss "the Jammu and Kashmir situation behind closed doors most likely on August 16", according to the reports.
The development comes after Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Tuesday night said he wrote a letter to the UNSC President, asking the latter to convene an emergency meeting of the Council to discuss India's "illegal actions" that also "violate UN resolutions on Kashmir".
The Minister stated in the letter that if "India continues the acts of aggression then Pakistan will not stay silent".
Except for China, all the other four permanent members of the Council have openly backed New Delhi's position that disputes between India and Pakistan are bilateral matters, with the United States even saying that the Kashmir developments are an internal matter of India.
After finding that none of the other members of the Council wanted the full-fledged session that Pakistan had requested, China made its own request for the scaled-down closed-door consultation, which would preclude Pakistan speaking at it, according to a diplomat with knowledge of the Council workings.
The format of the Security Council meeting as a closed-door consultation would preclude non-members participating and the proceedings would be secret, without official written records or access to the media or being broadcast.
China first made the request for a closed-door consultation in a letter and then brought it up on Wednesday during the Council's informal consultations on other subjects, according to a diplomat at the Security Council.
Like Pakistan, China also has a dispute with India over Kashmir having claimed Aksai Chin in Ladakh, which it now controls. Pakistan signed a deal with China in 1963 recognising Chinese sovereignty over some areas of Kashmir it had occupied.
While China wanted it taken up on Thursday, France said there should be more time given and that rather than being held as a consultation specifically on Kashmir, the topic should be taken up at a lower level as "other matters" - a sort of footnote to a consultation, the diplomats said.
The consultations on Wednesday were on Syria and Central Africa, but China also brought up the request for scheduling a consultation on Kashmir.
Tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad have heightened following India's move on Kashmir earlier this month.
Following that, Pakistan downgraded diplomatic relations by expelling the Indian High Commissioner and suspended trade ties with India.
Later, Pakistan announced suspending the Thar Express and Samjhauta Express, connecting the two countries. It also banned Indian films from being screened in cinemas across the nation.
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In this video: Kashmir and Ladakh celebrate Independence Day after revocation of Article 370
