ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Friday thanked China for bringing its Kashmir dispute with India before the United Nations Security Council and urging it to meet on the issue for the first time in decades last August, the foreign office said in a statement.
The 15-member council met behind closed doors at the request of China and Pakistan last year after India removed the decades-old autonomy of the Muslim-majority territory of Jammu and Kashmir enjoyed under the Indian constitution, sparking tensions with Pakistan. China rarely requests Security Council meetings.
Qureshi is currently in China for the second round of the China-Pakistan foreign ministers' strategic dialogue and will meet Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Jiechi.
A statement released by the Pakistani foreign office said the two nations would discuss “the changing situation in the world” and cooperation in various fields, including the multi-billion dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
“We are grateful to China for its cooperation in bringing the Kashmir issue to the attention of the Security Council three times in 55 years,” Qureshi was quoted as saying in the statement. “The situation in Kashmir is important for both the countries.”
The Himalayan region has long been a flashpoint in ties between India and Pakistan, who both claim it in full but rule it in part.
The Security Council adopted several resolutions in 1948 and in the 1950s on the dispute between India and Pakistan over the region, including one which says a plebiscite should be held to determine the future of mostly Muslim Kashmir.
Another resolution also calls upon both sides to “refrain from making any statements and from doing or causing to be done or permitting any acts which might aggravate the situation.”
UN peacekeepers have been deployed since 1949 to observe a ceasefire between India and Pakistan in Jammu and Kashmir.
Pakistan and China are longtime allies and partners in CPEC, which has seen Beijing pledge over $60 billion for infrastructure projects in Pakistan, central to China’s wider Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to develop land and sea trade routes in Asia and beyond.
China also gave Pakistan a one billion dollar loan last month to pay off part of a three billion dollar loan taken from the Saudi government in 2018. Another tranche of the Saudi payment is due at the end of the month.
