India slams China for raising Kashmir issue at UN, calls it ’internal matter’

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, Apr 10, 2020: In response to China’s claim that Kashmir remains ’high on the agenda of the United Nations Security Council’, the Ministry of Extermal Affairs on Thursday rejected the claim and reiterated once again that matters related to Jammu and Kashmir was internal to India.

In a statement released by the MEA on the website of its permanent mission in New York read: "We reject the reference to Jammu and Kashmir in a statement made by the spokesperson of the Permanent Mission of the People’s Republic of China to the United Nations. China is well aware of India’s consistent position on this issue. The Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir has been, is and shall continue to be an integral part of India. Issues related to J&K are internal matter to India", Zee reported.

 

Also, it said that China should "recognise and condemn the scourge of cross-border terrorism that affect the lives of the people of India, including in J&K".

Earlier, China in its statement had said that it "immediately" responded and processed to the letter by Pakistan on March 10 on Kashmir and it remains "high on the agenda of the council".

The letter to raise Kashmir issue at UNSC was given by Pakistan foreign minister SM Qureshi, hoping that China, as chair of UNSC, will raise the matter. The Chinese envoy to UN, Zhang Jun had even circulated Pakistan’s letter as an official document of the council, though no meeting took place. This despite growing criticism against Bejing’s leadership in UNSC for failing to convene a meeting on COVID-19.

Sources from UNSC member countries told WION that China was not keen to discuss the matter as it feared releasing more information on the virus outbreak.

The first case of coronavirus infection was reported from Wuhan in China in December 2019 and since then it has come under tremendous pressure for not sharing information earlier that could have prevented the spread of the deadly pathogen and spared the lives of thousands across the world.

The coronavirus has infected almost 16 lakh people with reports of over 95,000 deaths.