Russia backs Pakistan’s stance on new map

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on National Security Dr Moeed Yusuf said on Wednesday Russia supported Pakistan’s stance regarding the country’s new political map which was in accordance with the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions and international laws.

Talking to the media here, Dr Yusuf said the Tuesday’s virtual meeting of the National Security Advisers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) rejected India’s objections to the display of Pakistan’s political map in the meeting room.

“Pakistan proudly displayed the political map at the SCO meeting, while the Indian objections were rejected by the member countries and even Russia sided with Pakistan on the issue”, Dr Yusuf told reporters.

He said that Russia, as the host country, he requested the technical groups of the participating countries to test their technologies three days ago. During that technology test on September 11, India raised objection to the display of Pakistan’s map on the wall in its meeting room.

He said that India lodged a formal complaint to Russia, registering its protest against declaring Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) as a part of Pakistan in the map. He added that Russia conveyed to Pakistan that India wanted that map not to be displayed during the virtual session.

However, responding to that complaint, the Foreign Affairs Ministry told Russia that the map, launched on August 5 to which was observed as ‘Youm-Istehsal’, reflected “our legal right and is according to the United Nations Security Council resolutions and removing it from anywhere is unquestionable”.

Dr Yusuf said that Pakistan clearly stated that Kashmir was neither part of India nor it would ever be. “We have reminded the SCO members that India is violating the UN Charter by trying to illegally change the status of IIOJK,” he added.

Criticizing the walkout from the meeting by Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, Dr Yusuf said that the SCO was not the right platform to raise objections to Pakistan’s map as it dealt with multilateral issues and not the bilateral ones. “It is the forum of cooperation and engagement.”

About his speech at the forum, Dr Yusuf said he focused on four points. “Firstly, Pakistan being an important member stands with the SCO which urges all the countries to follow United Nations norms and principles,” he said.

“Secondly, it is the responsibility of international community to exert pressure on those countries which are not accepting United Nations resolution and not following international laws to resolve the disputes,” he added.

Thirdly, Dr Yusuf continued, he highlighted that there was hardly any country that had fought against terrorism like Pakistan died and “now the whole world recognises its efforts and needs to learn from its experiences”. Fourthly, he mentioned, the Intra-Afghan talks were not possible without Pakistan’s role.

“Now, the dialogue has started and Pakistan will play the role of facilitator,” he said. “But if we say if any other country can guarantee the peace in Afghanistan will be wrong and Pakistan cannot be blamed if God forbids there will any hiccups in that process of dialogue,” he added.

Dr Yusuf said that Pakistan talked about regional connectivity and economic security. “Pakistan is a responsible state and it does not want any conflict in the region and its focus is on economic diplomacy through boosting regional connectivity.”

He told the forum that said Pakistan wanted to provide corridors to Russia, Central Asia and China and wanted to use the Gwadar deep seaport. “We want peace in Afghanistan so that we can have access to Central Asia,” he added.

“Pakistan’s focus is CPEC [China Pakistan Economic Corridor] and having access to Central Asia leading to economic security which is our paramount objective. Pakistan is the hub where economic interests of the world meet not proxy wars.”