New Delhi, Dec 15, 2022: India and Pakistan faced off on the issue of Kashmir during the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), with India’s EAM S Jaishankar saying that a country accused of hosting Osama bin Laden and attacking a neighbouring Parliament should not “sermonise” on such matters.
The exchange took place during an open debate on reformed multilateralism at the Security Council in New York which was was chaired by Jaishankar as part of India’s presidency of the UN’s top body during December. Pakistan’s foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari spoke out during the debate and urged the Security Council to implement its resolutions pertaining to the Kashmir issue.
“If you want to see the success of multilateral institutions, multilateralism ! and this very Council, then surely you can assist in this process and allow for the implementation of UN Security Council resolutions when it comes to the question of Kashmir, prove that multilateralism can succeed, prove that the UN Security Council can succeed and deliver peace in our region,” Bhutto Zardari said.
Jaishankar stepped in to respond to Bhutto Zardari’s remarks and said, without naming Pakistan, that a country accused of hosting al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden should not “sermonise” before the Security Council. As UN member states search for the best solutions to reform the world body to make it capable of facing contemporary challenges such as terrorism, the normalisation of these threats cannot be accepted, he said.
“What our discourse must never accept is the normalisation of such threats. The question of justifying what the world regards as unacceptable should not even arise. That certainly applies to state sponsorship of cross-border terrorism. Nor can hosting Osama bin Laden and attacking a neighbouring Parliament serve as credentials to sermonise before this Council,” Jaishankar noted before the gathering.
Bhutto Zardari also voiced his opposition against any permanent membership for India in an expanded Security Council while calling for inclusive multilateralism within the framework of the UN to promote security and economic development. Without making any reference to the Kashmir issue, he said: “Parties to a dispute cannot advocate multilateral processes one day, multilateral reform one day and insist on bilateral avenues the next, or ultimately impose unilateral solutions.”