UN Security Council Not to Discuss Kashmir Issue on Tuesday

United Nations/New Delhi, Dec 17 (PTI) China is again understood to have requested a discussion in the UN Security Council on the situation in Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday but diplomatic sources said the issue will not be discussed in the Council.

It is learnt that Pakistan's all-weather ally Beijing has called for the issue of Jammu and Kashmir to be discussed in the 15-nation Council on Tuesday.

The matter was earlier expected to be discussed in the Security Council Consultations Room under "other matters" during closed consultations on Tuesday afternoon.

However, it is now understood that due to subsequent developments, this matter is not likely to come up on Tuesday as earlier planned.

The US mission to the UN confirmed that the briefing on Kashmir planned for Tuesday afternoon is no longer happening.

French diplomatic sources also said Kashmir will not be discussed in the Security Council on Tuesday.

"Our position has been very clear: Kashmir issue has to be discussed bilaterally. We have highlighted this several times recently, including in the UN," a source said.

In the days following the abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir in August, China had formally asked for closed consultations in the Security Council to discuss India's move to revoke the special status of Kashmir after Pakistan wrote a letter on the issue to Poland, the Council President for the month of August.

The rare closed consultations on Kashmir by the Security Council on August 16 ended without any outcome or statement from the powerful UN organ, dealing a huge snub to Pakistan's efforts, backed by China, to internationalise the Kashmir issue, which an overwhelming majority in the Council stressed is a bilateral matter between New Delhi and Islamabad.

The informal closed consultations on August 16 lasted over an hour after which China's Ambassador to the UN Zhang Jun and Pakistan's then UN envoy Maleeha Lodhi made remarks to the media at the Security Council stakeout one by one. The two left without taking any questions from the reporters present.

India's Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin, speaking to reporters at the Security Council stake-out following the August 16 meeting, had said that India's national position was and remains that matters related to Article 370 of the Indian Constitution "are entirely an internal matter of India. These have no external ramifications," he asserted.

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