Pakistan, India clash over Kashmir issue at SAARC virtual meet

Pakistan and India on Thursday traded allegations and counter-allegations on the decades-old Kashmir dispute at the foreign ministers’ virtual meet of the South Asian Association for Regional Countries (SAARC) held on the side-lines of the 75th United Nations General Assembly in New York.

Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi raised the unresolved dispute while his Indian counterpart cited Pakistan’s ‘cross-border terrorism’ as hurdle in the way to regional connectivity.

Foreign ministers from all member countries— including Pakistan and India — attended the informal interaction.

Last year, the two foreign ministers avoided each other, as Qureshi was absent during the Indian External Affair Subrahmanyam Jaishankar’s speech while Jaishankar left the venue before Qureshi spoke.

This time, however, they remained present during each other’s speech.

Qureshi, while highlighting the importance of SAARC in view of regional economic and development challenges, brought up India’s unilateral actions in illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

An official hand-out said, Foreign Minister Qureshi underlined that peaceful resolution of outstanding disputes was a pre-requisite to achieving development, economic growth, poverty alleviation and social uplift of the people living in the region.

He emphasised the importance of faithfully following the UN Charter and implementing UN Security Council Resolutions.

The foreign minister condemned and opposed any unilateral and illegal measures to change the status of disputed territories in violation of the UN Security Council Resolutions.

“Such unilateral measures,” he added, “run counter to shared objective of creating a regional environment of amity and cooperation and these must be opposed resolutely.”

Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, without mentioning Pakistan, highlighted that the organisation must overcome “cross-border terrorism, obstruction in trade and blocking of connectivity” the three key challenges.

Jaishankar also called for collective resolve to defeat the scourge of terrorism -- including the “forces that support, nurture and encourage it”.

The aggressive Indian posture is seen as a major reason that Saarc could not take off. Pakistan was to host the Saarc summit in 2016 but an Indian boycott led to the cancelation of the event. India has since been consistently blocking any attempts by Pakistan to host the summit.

However, during Thursday’s virtual meeting, Qureshi said in the spirit of regionalism and as per Pakistan’s commitment to the Saarc platform, it was willing to host the 19th Saarc Summit at Islamabad.

He expressed the hope that artificial obstacles created in its way would be removed and Saarc would be enabled to function as an effective instrument of regional cooperation.

Qureshi, in his statement, reaffirmed Pakistan’s commitment to the Saarc process and highlighted its importance in the context of regional economic and development challenges.

The foreign minister outlined the impact Covid-19 has had globally, in general, and in the South Asian region, in particular.

He shared with member states the steps taken by Pakistan to successfully contain and control the Covid-19 pandemic and mitigate its economic impact.

He offered to share Pakistan’s best practices with other regional states in their fight against the pandemic.