Pakistan, India must resolve Kashmir issue bilaterally

MOSCOW/ISLAMABAD: Russia’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Dmitry Polyanski has said his country hopes that the existing divergences around Kashmir will be settled bilaterally by political and diplomatic means between Pakistan and India.

In a series of posts on Twitter, the Russian envoy said, “Russia continues to consistently promote normalisation of Pakistan-India ties.”

“We hope that existing divergences around Kasmir will be settled bilaterally by political and diplomatic means only on the basis of Simla Agreement of 1972 and Lahore declaration of 1999, in accordance with UN Charter, relevant UN resolutions and bilateral agreements between India and Pakistan,” he added.

Polyanski further said Russia is friends and good partners with both India and Pakistan and both peoples. “We have no hidden agendas. So we will open-heartedly continue to engage with Islamabad and New Delhi in order to help both of them come to terms and have good neighborly relations Kashmir,” he added.

The Russian envoy’s tweets came after UN Security Council’s meeting on Friday which was called to discuss the critical situation in Indian occupied Kashmir.

The UNSC met behind closed doors at the request of China and Pakistan discussed the Indian government's recent decision to revoke the special status of occupied Kashmir.

The council had taken up the issue of the critical situation in Indian Occupied Kashmir after more than 50 years since it was last discussed on the platform, effectively rejecting India's stance that occupied Kashmir was an internal issue and not an internationally recognised dispute.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Saturday in a telephonic conversation with Foreign Minister of Canada Chrystia Freeland apprised her of the sufferings of people in the Indian Held Jammu & Kashmir (IHJ&K).

He also briefed her about the unilateral and illegal actions of India, including suspension of mobile and internet services, imposition of curfew, human rights violations and blockade of the entire IHK, a press release said.

These actions, which were in grave violation of international law and the UN Security Council resolutions, were designed to change the internationally disputed status of Jammu & Kashmir and demographic structure of the region, he added.

The foreign minister expressed apprehension about the possibility of false flag operation by India and violations of the ceasefire agreement on the LoC which could further undermine peace and security of the region.

He also shared that UN Security Council, at the request of Pakistan, had deliberations on the issue. The Canadian foreign minister said that Canada was following the situation closely. In her statement, on August 13, she had said, Canada is concerned about the risk of escalation, infringements on civil rights and reports of detentions.