A new era has begun in the history of Jammu and Kashmir on August 5, 2019 when Government of India took world by surprise by abrogating Article 370. Two days later, Pakistan had woken up from slumber after gathering its wits and in a knee jerk reaction, resorted to superficial actions of scaling down diplomatic relations, suspending bilateral trade, discontinuing Samjhauta express and Lahore- New Delhi bus service – primarily for public consumption of Pakistani people. Pakistan had ruled out any military option and resolved to explore all possible diplomatic channels including taking Kashmir issue to the United Nations. In spite of any significant support from the international community, Pakistan with the help of its all-weather friend, China had taken the matter of abrogation of Article 370 to United Nations Security council (UNSC). However, the issue was discussed in a closed-door meeting attended by five permanent and ten non-permanent member countries.
Who gained at UNSC
What has been transpired in the meeting is anybody’s guess as there was no formal statement issued at the end of the meeting as majority of 15 members had opposed the China’s push for the same. However, sources privy to the internal discussions confirmed that the overwhelming number of council members maintained that Kashmir is a bilateral issue between India and Pakistan. In the absence of any official communiqué after the meeting, China’s Ambassador to the UN Zhang Jun and Maleeha Lodhi, Pakistan’s representative, left with no option but to give out their national narrative on the issue while briefing the media but both left without taking a single question from the reporters present there.
On the other hand, India’s representative Syed Akbaruddin briefed the media that country’s stand “ was and remains that matters related to Article 370 of the Constitution are entirely an internal matter of India and these have no external ramifications.” He also told the media that “For the first time after the end of Security Council consultations, we noted that two states (China and Pakistan) who made national statements tried to pass them off as the will of the international community.”
Upbeat Indian Envoy
Unlike China and Pakistan’s representative, Akbaruddin stayed back to take questions from the reporters and said that he would answer five questions and gave first three questions to Pakistani reporters.