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Responding to China, India on Thursday reiterated its stance on Kashmir and said that the union territory “has been, is and shall continue” to be its integral part, as per media reports.
A spokesperson in the Ministry of External Affairs Anurag Srivastava asserted that India expects China to refrain from commenting on the country’s internal affairs and respect its sovereignty and territorial integrity.
He added that India rather expects China to speak unequivocally against the cross-border terrorism that disrupts the lives of people of India, including in Jammu and Kashmir.
The spokesperson of China’s permanent mission in the UN said the Kashmir issue remained high on the UN Security Council’s agenda and China is very closely monitoring the current situation in Kashmir. At present, China is holding the presidency of the UNSC.
The official reportedly said that the Kashmir issue is a dispute left from history and should be properly and peacefully resolved.
“We reject the reference to Jammu and Kashmir in a statement made by the spokesperson of the Permanent Mission of the People’s Republic of China to the United Nations,” Srivastava said to media.
He was responding to a query on the remarks by the Chinese spokesperson.
“China is well aware of India’s consistent position on this issue. The Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir has been, is and shall continue to be an integral part of India. Issues related to J and K are internal matter to India,” he said.
“It is, therefore, our expectation that other countries, including China, would refrain from commenting on matters that are internal affairs of India and respect India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” he said.
While refraining itself from speaking about the UT of Jammu-Kashmir, China, in particular, condemned the reorganization of the UT Ladakh as it lays claim over several parts of it.
In August, China pushed for a UNSC meeting on Kashmir after India’s decision. However, the attempt was foiled by other member-states of the multilateral body.
The tension in the diplomatic relation between China and India occurred especially after India revoked Article 370 on August 5 last year.
This cast a shadow over Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to India in October last year for the second informal summit with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
However, notwithstanding the acrimony over the issue between the two countries, Modi and Xi held “successful” talks in Mamallapuram in Tamil Nadu.
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