Guterres backs Kashmir’s settlement as per SC resolutions

Secretary general says no change in UN position on the dispute


APP January 23, 2022
A file photo of former Portugal prime minister Antonio Guterres. PHOTO: AFP

UNITED NATIONS:

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reiterated the world body’s position on the Kashmir dispute, saying on Friday that the issue should be resolved on the basis of the UN Charter, Security Council resolutions and bilateral agreements between India and Pakistan.

At his first press conference of the new year, which marked beginning of his second term as the UN secretary general, Guterres expressed the hope that the human rights would be respected in the disputed territory.

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“Well, the position of the UN … when the resolutions that were taken … remains the same,” Guterres said, while referring to his statement of August 8, 2019, days after India unilaterally deprived the disputed territory of its special status and imposed a rippling lockdown.

The secretary general pointed out that the United Nations had a peacekeeping operation in Kashmir — the UN Military Observers Group in India and Pakistan (Unmogip), which monitored the Line of Control (LoC) in the disputed region.

He said he had offered his “good offices” to resolve the dispute several times, and “we hope that this is something that can be solved peacefully, and that the situation in Kashmir is a situation in which human rights are respected and in which people can live in peace and security.”

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