The Foreign Office (FO) on Thursday rejected India’s recent remarks regarding the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) and the Kashmir dispute, asserting that India had no right to blame the UNSC for resolutions related to the issue.
FO Spokesperson Shafqat Ali Khan made the comments in response to Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar’s statements at the Raisina Dialogue in New Delhi earlier this week.
Jaishankar, during his address at the conference, criticized the UNSC’s role in the Kashmir issue, saying that the longest-standing illegal occupation of a territory was India’s presence in Kashmir. He accused the UNSC of putting "the attacker and the victim on par" when it originally took up the issue in 1948. He further stressed the need for a “strong” and “fair” UN to address the situation.
Responding to these remarks, Khan emphasized that it was India itself that had brought the Kashmir issue to the UN in 1948. "Today, India has no right to blame the Security Council and its members for the resolutions that were subsequently adopted," he stated. He also noted that the ongoing dispute over Kashmir remains an internationally recognized issue, with the final status of the region to be determined by the people of Kashmir through a UN-supervised plebiscite, as laid out in the relevant UNSC resolutions.
Khan expressed alarm over the increasing frequency of what he termed "unwarranted assertions" by Indian leadership regarding Jammu and Kashmir. He reiterated that Pakistan was committed to peaceful coexistence and stressed that the resolution of the Kashmir dispute, in line with UNSC resolutions and the aspirations of the Kashmiri people, was crucial for lasting peace in South Asia.
Earlier this month, the FO spokesperson had similarly dismissed Jaishankar’s comments about Azad Jammu and Kashmir, calling them "baseless claims." Jaishankar had suggested that Kashmir would be "solved" once Pakistan vacated the territories it controls. In response, Khan urged India to "vacate the large territories of Jammu and Kashmir" under its occupation, emphasizing that India-occupied Kashmir remains an internationally disputed territory.
Khan concluded by asserting that India’s remarks misrepresent the ground realities and violate international law, urging India to respect the region’s disputed status and the UNSC’s resolutions.
