India has criticized Pakistan for its “baseless and deceitful narratives” following references to Kashmir made by Islamabad’s envoy, Munir Akram, during his speech at the UN General Assembly.
Pratik Mathur, Minister at India’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations, delivering India’s statement during the UN General Assembly debate on the Annual Report of the UN Security Council, accused Pakistan of “misusing” the UN forum to propagate false narratives.
“Earlier in the day, one delegation misused this forum to spread baseless and deceitful narratives, which is not a surprise. I will not dignify these remarks with any response just to save valuable time of this august body,” Mathur said.
Mathur’s remarks were in response to the statement made by Pakistan’s Ambassador to the UN during the General Assembly debate, where he called for monitoring the implementation of UN resolutions, including those on Palestine and Jammu and Kashmir.
Pakistan regularly brings up the Jammu and Kashmir issue at UN platforms and other international forums.
India has repeatedly rebuffed Pakistan’s attempts to raise the Kashmir issue on international platforms, asserting that the Union territories of Jammu and Kashmir as well as Ladakh are “integral parts of India,” and Pakistan has no “locus standi” to comment on India’s internal matters.
During the UNGA debate, Mathur stressed the need for a comprehensive reform of the Security Council, calling for the expansion of both permanent and non-permanent members.
“It is high time to bring the Council in line with its Charter responsibility to act on behalf of the entire Membership. This will not be achieved without enhancing the membership in both the categories — permanent and non-permanent members,” Mathur said.
Mathur stressed that annual reports of the Security Council must inform, highlight and analyse measures it has decided upon or taken to maintain international peace and security during the reporting period.
“The annual report, in its truest form, is also meant to be an analysis on the UN peacekeeping operations, the flagship tool for the maintenance of international peace and security. However, in reality, we find there is little information on how peacekeeping operations are run, on the problems they face, on why certain mandates are set or changed, or on when and why they are strengthened, scaled down or ended. As most peacekeepers are contributed by non-Council members, who put the lives of their troops at risk to serve the cause of international peace, a better partnership between the Security Council and the Troop Contributing Countries (TCCs) is needed,” Mathur said.
(With ANI input)
