Pakistan adamant on raising Kashmir at UNGA, but India won't do so

After Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan asserted that he will forcefully present the Kashmir issue at the United National General Assembly (UNGA), India on Thursday (September 19) said that it will not raise the issue during the meeting on September 27.

Instead, the Ministry of External Affairs asserted that it will discuss its contribution on the development, peace and security fronts as a responsible member of the UNGA, news agency ANI reported.

Stating that if Pakistan is wishing to dwell upon the Kashmir issue they are welcome to do so, Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale said, “Our Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) will focus on what the UNGA’s high-level segment is meant to focus, which is that as a responsible member of the United Nations, the PM will flag what we are doing for development, for security, for peace, and our expectations and aspirations of other countries.”

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Further, Gokhale added that India has several multilateral issues to discuss, like terrorism, though it won’t be the focus of the discussion, the report said.

This comes over a month after India abrogated Article 370 of its Constitution and revoked the special status of Jammu and Kashmir. The move triggered sharp criticism from Pakistan, which has been trying to highlight the issue at several global forums.

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Khan had also promised to fight for Kashmir “in a way it had never been done before,” the local media reported.

Prime ministers of both the countries, India and Pakistan, are scheduled to speak at the annual high-level UNGA meet in New York.

(With inputs from agencies)