New Delhi: In a sharp rebuke to Pakistan, China which is the current state of United Nations Security Council President Zhang Jun (March 2020) ignored a plea by the former for “urgent and appropriate” consideration of what it described as grave developments in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K).
The significance of China’s action, or inaction, while holding the UNSC presidency has not been lost on India as the two countries look to jointly combat Covid-19 as External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said last week about further building upon bilateral efforts in that domain.
The government had announced that Air India had established a cargo air-bridge between India and China, which has worked overtime to convince the world that it’s not responsible for Covid-19 origin, for transporting critical medical equipment and supplies between the two countries. Pakistan foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi wrote to then UNSC President China’s Zhang on March 9 highlighting the “grave human rights situation” in Jammu and Kashmir.
Pakistan announced this development only on March 27. While Pakistan’s announcement didn’t specify what action Islamabad had sought, a letter dated March 10 from Pakistan’s permanent representative Munir Akram to Zhang reveals that Pakistan requested “urgent and appropriate consideration” by the Security Council under “India-Pakistan Question” of developments in Jammu and Kashmir which “pose a threat to international peace and security”. Qureshi’s letter was enclosed with the one sent by Akram to Zhang.
Beijing had been openly advocating until January this year Pakistan’s case on India’s decision to revoke the special status of J and K, even forcing the Security Council into having an informal meeting last year on the issue.
China forced UNSC into having another closed-door meeting on Kashmir this year in January but this one too concluded without any outcome as an overwhelming majority in the Council agreed that the issue could only be discussed bilaterally.
That as UNSC President China chose to take no notice of Islamabad’s call for urgent consideration on the same issue is a significant turnaround by Beijing as far as India is concerned. As a follow-up to Qureshi’s letter, Pakistan has also been calling for removal of all communication restrictions in Jammu and Kashmir and for “unfettered” access to medical and other essential supplies in the wake of the novel Coronavirus outbreak.
On the novel Coronavirus though, India and China seem to be working together to contain the disease, as is obvious from Jaishankar’s conversation last week with China’s state councilor and foreign minister Wang Yi. After Jaishankar tweeted about his conversation with Wang, Chinese ambassador to India Sun Weidong had said that India had agreed not to “label the virus”. Sun again said in a tweet that India and China were partners sailing in the same boat and were trying to help each other.
The Indian government has so far remained silent on the origin of the virus. Official sources here had described the G20 video conference as the “best illustration of global cooperation” with no attempt by any country to impute motives.
