NEW DELHI: India has rebuked Pakistan for raking up the issue of Kashmir in the United Nations General Assembly. “Pakistan’s desperate attempts to peddle falsehoods and bad habit of abusing the sanctity of multilateral forums deserves collective contempt and perhaps some sympathy as well,” said Pratik Mathur, Counsellor at India’s Permanent Mission to the UN Headquarters.
Jammu and Kashmir is an integral and inalienable part of India, he said. Meanwhile, after the UNGA opened its annual debate on Security Council reforms, speakers once again renewed their appeals for enlarging the 15-member organisation and updating its working methods to make it more transparent, inclusive, representative, accountable and effective.
India’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Ruchira Kamboj spoke on behalf of the Group of Four, which also comprises Brazil, Germany and Japan. “Representation is an inescapable precondition for legitimacy and effectiveness and the longer Security Council reform is stalled, the greater would be its deficiency in representation,” said Kamboj.
She voiced her regret over the lack of substantive work after four decades on equitable representation. The United Kingdom’s Ambassador to the UN Barbara Woodward at UNGA backed permanent seats for India, Germany, Japan and Brazil at the UNSC. “We support the creation of new permanent seats for India, Germany, Japan and Brazil, as well as permanent African representation on the UNSC,” said Ambassador Woodward.
Meanwhile, Pakistan has made a strong case against creating new permanent seats on the UN Security Council, saying instead an increase in the number of non-permanent members would make the 15-member body more representative, democratic and effective.