China says Kashmir high on UNSC’s agenda

By News Desk

UNITED NATIONS: A spokesman for the Chinese mission to the UN has said Beijing’s position on Indian-occupied Kashmir remains unchanged as he rejected Indian media claims that China, during its presidency of the Security Council in March, had ignored Pakistan’s call for urgent consideration of the decades-old dispute at the 15-member body.

“The question of Kashmir remains high on the Council’s agenda,” the spokesman said in a statement on Tuesday. “China pays close attention to the current situation, and China’s position on the Kashmir issue remains unchanged,” he added.

“The Kashmir issue,” the spokesman said, “is a dispute left from history, and should be properly and peacefully resolved based on the charter of the United Nations, Security Council resolutions and bilateral agreements. China opposes any unilateral actions that complicate the situation”.

On China’s part, the spokesman said Ambassador Zhang, as the Security Council president, immediately circulated a letter from Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi highlighting India’s “grave violations” in occupied Kashmir as an official document of the Council.

The letter was delivered to him by Pakistan’s UN Ambassador Munir Akram on March 10. “Under its duties as president of the Council, China immediately responded to and processed the letter,” the spokesman said.