United Nations Security Council to Hold Talks on Kashmir Issue Today

The UN Security Council (UNSC) is going to hold closed-door talks on the developments in Kashmir, post the scrapping of Article 370 from the state of Jammu and Kashmir by the government of India, at the request of China.

The meeting is going to take place today, a diplomat at the Security Council told the news agency IANS. The diplomat also said that China made the request for the meeting in a letter, which came up during the UN Security Council’s informal consultations on Wednesday.

The format of the meeting is kept to a closed-door discussion preventing Pakistan to participate in it, the diplomat informed. As a closed-door meeting, the proceedings of the consultation would be kept a secret, without being broadcast or accessible to the media.

China wanted the consultations in the UN Security Council to take place on Thursday, but since the schedule was already set for the day without any meetings, it was decided to be taken up on Friday, the diplomat informed.

The diplomat also said that the office of the UN Security Council President Joanna Wronecka of Poland was working out the details for holding the meeting before and when it was to be held. 

Previously, Pakistan had asked for a meeting of the UN Security Council on the Kashmir issue after India decided to rescind Articles 370 and 35A of its Constitution that gave the state of Jammu and Kashmir a special status, but was overlooked by UN Security Council.

In the United National Security Council apart from China, all the other four permanent members of the Council have openly supported the decision of the government of India, that disputes between India and Pakistan are bilateral matters, which the US even confided, saying that the developments in Kashmir are an internal matter of India.

On Wednesday, United Nations Security Council’s consultations were on Syria and Central Africa, but China brought up the issue of Kashmir and said that Pakistan has requested in a letter to the Council that the matter be discussed in the international platform.

According to some other sources, France and China differed at the meeting on how the Kashmir issue should be discussed. As China wanted the consultation to be formally dedicated to the Kashmir issue, while France wanted the discussion to be taken up at a lower level as ‘other matters’ in a consultation, just as a sort of footnote to a consultation.