India reacts to UNGA president’s Kashmir remarks

NEW DELHI: India has reacted to the president of the UN General Assembly’s reference to Kashmir during his Pakistan tour, stating that his behaviour “diminishes his standing on the global platform”.

During his visit to Pakistan, UNGA president, Volkan Bozkir, had said that it was Pakistan’s duty to raise the Jammu and Kashmir dispute in the United Nations “more strongly”.

Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Arindam Bagchi in a statement said India had “expressed strong opposition” to Bozkir’s remarks that were made during a joint press conference with the Pak Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi.

“When an incumbent President of the UN General Assembly makes misleading and prejudiced remarks, he does great disservice to the office he occupies. The PGA’s behaviour is truly regrettable and surely diminishes his standing on the global platform,” said Bagchi.

“His remarks that Pakistan is ‘duty bound’ to raise this issue in the UN more strongly are unacceptable. Nor indeed is there any basis for comparison to other global situations,” he said.