Overwhelming majority of UNSC believes Kashmir a bilateral issue between India and Pak, says MEA

The overwhelming majority of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) believed that the world body was not the right forum to discuss Kashmir issue, said Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar on Thursday.

"An effort was made by Pakistan through a member of UNSC to once again misuse the platform of UNSC. The overwhelming majority of UNSC was of the view that the UNSC was not the right forum for such issues and it should be discussed bilaterally between India and Pakistan," said Kumar during a weekly press briefing.

Kumar's remarks come a day after China and Pakistan managed to hold an informal closed-door consultation on Kashmir in the UNSC in New York more than five months after India revoked the special status of Jammu and Kashmir granted under Article 370 of the Constitution in August.

"The formal closed-door meeting, therefore, ended without any outcome," said Kumar.

He said that India, during the meeting, highlighted Pakistan's desperate measures to "peddle baseless allegations and present an alarming scenario."

"In our view, it was once again highlighted Pakistan desperate measures to peddle baseless allegations and present an alarming scenario it lacks any credibility," the spokesperson added.

The UNSC's closed-door meeting was called to discuss an issue relating to an African country. China made a request to deliberate on the Kashmir issue under the agenda of "Any Other Business Points."

No other UNSC member, barring China, commented on the meeting after it ended given that it was an informal consultation.

China's ambassador to the UN, Zhang Jun, warned against further escalation between India and Pakistan's over Kashmir and hoped that the Security Council meeting would encourage both the countries to seek a solution through dialogue.