India is gearing up to thwart Pakistan’s attempts to internationalise the so-called Kashmir issue as the latter begins its term as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council (UNSC) for 2025-26.
For India, it will also provide an occasion to see how China balances between the anti-India actions of its good friend, Pakistan, and the fledgling attempts to thaw relations with India after the de-escalation at the Line of Actual Control (LAC). In that sense, it will be a test of China’s sincerity of purpose that India would want to confirm.
If Pakistan’s utterances when the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) was in session last September are any indication, it is bound to rake up the so-called Kashmir issue and raise its baseless charges of Indian eyes on its territory.
New Delhi has no time in touch with some permanent members of UNSC over the issues that may be debated over the next two years, beginning January 1. The issues could include Pakistan’s noise on Kashmir.
India is banking on the support of key permanent UNSC members, including Russia, France, and the United States (US), to neutralise Pakistan’s efforts. Diplomats in New Delhi have been actively engaging with these nations to ensure their backing in upcoming Council debates over the next two years, according to media reports.
It is also in India’s interest to garner support from other non-permanent members of the UNSC, such as Algeria, a long-standing African ally, as well as Greece, Denmark, and Slovenia. These collaborations are aimed at securing broad-based support to counter Pakistan’s narratives and maintain focus on pressing global issues.
India is right in being wary of Pakistan given the fact that the Islamic nation will also preside over the UNSC in July when it will be the Chair. This will allow Islamabad to set the United Nations Security Council agenda. In addition to this, Islamabad finds itself holding another crucial post after it secured a seat on the Islamic State (ISIS) and Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee, which is responsible for designating individuals and groups as terrorists and imposing sanctions.
In normal course, Pakistan’s hands would be full as its tenure begins at a time when central and west Asia is experiencing political and humanitarian crises – the war in Gaza, crisis in Lebanon, heightened tensions between Israel and Iran, the regime change in Syria, and the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia, to name a few.
However, its myopic policies will see Pakistan giving primacy to raising its old rhetoric about Kashmir. According to media reports, Islamabad’s envoy to the United Nations has already hinted this in his remarks after Pakistan assumed the seat at the UN Security Council.
“We will continue to highlight the Kashmir issue “and push for concrete steps from the international community,” said Pakistan’s UN Ambassador Munir Akram.
More than just a hint came from Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif when he addressed the UN General Assembly in September last.
Sharif had said Pakistan would respond “most decisively” if India conducted operations across the Line of Control (LoC), accusing the Indian leadership of threatening to cross the LoC and take over Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK). He said India had “thoughtlessly spurned Pakistan’s proposals for a mutual strategic restraint regime” in the nuclear context.
The Pakistani Prime Minister had accused the government of conducting a “classic settler colonial project” in Jammu and Kashmir, following its reorganisation by the government on August 5, 2019.
India strongly rebutted Sharif that very day when the First Secretary in India’s Permanent Mission to the U.N. Bhavika Mangalanandan delivered India’s response to Sharif’s speech.
India termed it a “travesty”. It said there could be “no compact with terrorism” and warned that acts of terror would be met with consequences.
“…This assembly regrettably witnessed a travesty this morning — a country run by the military, with a global reputation for terrorism, narcotics trade and transnational crime, has had the audacity to attack the world’s largest democracy,” she said while exercising India’s Right of Reply during the UNGA debate.
Pakistan coveted Indian territory and had used terror to disrupt elections in Jammu and Kashmir, she stated, accusing Pakistan of attacking India’s financial capital, its marketplaces and pilgrimage routes. Cross-border terror would “inevitably invite consequences”, she warned.
India has another reason to be on alert. Pakistan’s term also coincides with talks to reform the Security Council with India aiming to become a permanent member with full veto rights.
Islamabad will aim to impede the process. India, being the world’s most populous nation, and one of the leading global economies, with a proven track-record has been persisting for the “much-needed reforms”.
Pakistan has already said that it will strongly oppose the addition of any new permanent members, and will favour the expansion of the non-permanent category instead.
Islamabad has also said that as one of the five non-permanent members of the Security Council from the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation or OIC countries, Pakistan will aim to become the ‘Voice of the Muslim World’, quite like India being the ‘Voice of the Global South’.
