At UNSC Pakistan Was Booted Out With 14 Kicks,Only China Held Back
The UNSC endorsed the view of the rest of the World, that Pakistan must sort out its problems, if any with India, bilaterally – and the Chinese sponsored proposal at the UNSC forum, is entirely back in Pakistan’s court.
France, Russia, and Germany among others just refused to discuss the China-Pakistan effort to generate some kind of formal statement. A few others who may have had other ideas initially, also changed their mind. Even USA and UK did not back the Chinese proposal for issuing any formal statement on Kashmir.
From Washington, President Trump who had earlier offered a mediation in Kashmir. tweeted on host of topics, but nothing about Kashmir and poor Khan. The issue attracted very little attention with the Trump administration also ignoring moves at the UN. Pakistan’s PM Imran Khan called President Trump shortly before the meeting in an effort to interpose the issue into a national security meeting on Afghanistan that the US President had convened, but the read-out of the call said Trump conveyed to Khan the importance of India and Pakistan reducing tensions through bilateral dialogue regarding the situation in J&K.
However you have to give to the Pakistan Government. They can fool their people all the time. The very fact that the UNSC chose to even go in for a consultation — informal and closed door it may be — over an issue that has been on the UN backburner since last 70 years, albeit at the prompting of only one country, China, was cause for celebration.
Their diplomats and politicians exulted in their own idea of success, and the Pakistani media was full of headlines about the crushing defeat the country had inflicted on India by “internationalising” the issue.
For Pakistan diplomacy means hoodwinking its own people. Pakistan tried level best to fool even the UNSC members but failed miserably. Outside the closed door meeting of UNSC India and Pakistan fought a battle of perceptions over the outcome.
For India, the fact that no country agreed to the China Pakistan effort to force a formal meeting, the fact that the informal meeting had no minutes, no votes or show of hands, no resolution, no statements, and no outcome, showed the duo was isolated. Diplomats pointed out that barring China, not one among the 14 other UNSC members came out to speak on the matter. And even China’s statement segued into a plea for bilateral talks, which India was happy to undertake if Pakistan fulfilled its commitment to roll up its terrorist apparatus.
The UN episode clearly showed that it was Pakistan that was isolated in the international community which is sympathetic to the difficulty India is having in tackling the Pakistan-sponsored insurgency in J&K. “The more Pakistan exerts on this issue, the more it will highlight Pakistan’s use of terrorism in the region for territorial gains and to achieve political ends,” an official said.
After the UNSC meeting was over, the Chinese and Pakistani diplomats bolted after making “spurious claims” on the outcome of the meeting, misrepresenting the sentiments of the UNSC, while New Delhi’s representative stood up to scrutiny and took a range of questions, including several from Pakistani scribes.
