India has again reprimanded Pakistan on the issue of Kashmir in the area-formula meeting of the United Nations Security Council. India's Permanent Representative to the UN Parvataneni Harish strongly condemned Pakistan for making unnecessary comments on Jammu and Kashmir. He said that Pakistan wants to make UNSC a political option.
He said that I also refer to the inappropriate comments made by the representative of Pakistan. It is unbelievable that a co-chair, who was expected to be balanced and impartial, chooses to politicize this forum. I would only like to emphasize, for want of time, that the issue of Jammu and Kashmir is a matter of internal affairs of India. It has always been like this and will remain so.
In fact, Harish's comments came after Pakistan's Permanent Representative Asim Iftikhar Ahmed raised the issue of Jammu and Kashmir during his speech at the meeting organized by the Permanent Missions of Pakistan and China to the UN. Let us tell you that Pakistan is currently completing the two-year term of being elected as a temporary member of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) for 2025 and 2026.
India has consistently believed that the entire Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh are and will always remain an integral and indestructible part of the country. Relations between India and Pakistan have been tense over the issue of Jammu and Kashmir and New Delhi completely rejects any third party mediation and believes that Jammu and Kashmir is an internal matter.
Area-formula meetings are informal and confidential meetings that allow Security Council members and invited participants to exchange their views in a flexible environment. This format is named after former Venezuelan Ambassador Diego Arria, who started this practice in 1992.
Elaborating on the topic, Harish said that the UN Security Council is entrusted with the responsibility of maintaining international peace and security and that different mechanisms are provided for resolving conflicts under Chapters VI and VII in the UN Charter. He noted that these two chapters are different in nature and their applicability is different.
Harish said Chapter VII measures are meant to maintain or restore international peace and security in cases of threats to peace, breach of peace and aggression and non-compliance can have serious consequences.
Harish said that these interventions are designed to address current realities and do not have permanent validity. These need to be re-reviewed according to changing circumstances and context.
