New Delhi: Pakistan's effort to raise Jammu and Kashmir at the UN Security Council through China was a "misuse of UNSC", India said today. Islamabad, the foreign ministry said, "has a choice to avoid this global embarrassment by refraining from such acts in future". There was a word of caution for China -- Pakistan's all-weather ally - as well. "China must take a cue from the global consensus and refrain from taking such actions," ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar told reporters.
China's third initiative to hold a closed-door meeting to discuss Jammu and Kashmir at the UNSC backfired yesterday as the participating nations said it was not the place to discuss the issue. Besides China, four other permanent members of the Security Council - France, Russia, the US and the UK --- had taken part in the discussion.
"Most of the members were of the view that it is a bilateral issue. Hence the closed door session didn't come to any conclusion... We hope the message has gone loud and clear to Pakistan that if at all there's any matter between India and Pakistan that needs to be discussed, it should be done bilaterally," the ministry said today.
This was the second time since August that Jammu and Kashmir was discussed at the UNSC - with similar results. Prompted by Pakistan, China raised the issue after India ended the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcated into two union territories.
A second attempt to raise the issue at UNSC in December had fallen through.
"Why are they (China) doing that on their (Pakistan's) behalf? I think they must desist from such action," Mr Kumar said.
After yesterday's meeting, Chinese Ambassador Zhang Jun said the Foreign Minister of Pakistan had written letters to the Security Council, asking it to "pay attention to the current situation in Jammu and Kashmir."
Asked if the meeting advanced anything, he said: "I am sure the meeting will be helping both parties to understand the risk of further escalation and will encourage them to approach to each other and to have dialogue and to seek means, to seek solutions through dialogue. I think that will be helpful".
While many other countries have also backed India's position that this is an internal matter and a bilateral one, there have been concerns expressed about the detentions of political leaders and the internet restrictions. These concerns have been expressed by the US again last week.