ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s de facto national security chief Moeed Yusuf has said that India leaving a meeting of national security advisers of member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization on Tuesday had left a “bad taste.”
India’s foreign ministry spokesman Anurag Srivastava said New Delhi exited the virtual meeting hosted by Russia after Yusuf, “deliberately projected a fictitious map that Pakistan has recently been propagating.”
“This was in blatant disregard to the advisory by the host against it and in violation of the norms of the meeting,” he said.
In August, Pakistan’s cabinet approved a new political map that shows areas in the disputed Himalayan Kashmir valley to be a part of Pakistan, a move that has irked neighboring India which also lays claim to the territory.
The Muslim-majority Kashmir region has been at the heart of more than 70 years of animosity since the partition of British-ruled India into Muslim Pakistan and majority Hindu India in 1947.
Tensions reached a new high in August last year, when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government took away Indian-administered Kashmir’s special privileges, provoking anger in the region and Pakistan.
In a tweet about the SCO meeting, Yusuf said he had highlighted “unilateral and illegal actions” in the disputed Kashmir territory that were “a threat to regional peace and prosperity.”
It was an honour to represent Pakistan at the SCO NSAs dialogue today where I highlighted Pakistan’s continued commitment to peace in the region. Pakistan is committed to working with SCO member states to achieve peace and stability, economic security and connectivity. pic.twitter.com/0guycf92mF
— Moeed W. Yusuf (@YusufMoeed) September 15, 2020
“Bizarrely, my Indian counterpart chose to walk out of Pakistan and Russia's speech,” Yusuf tweeted. “Left a bad taste at a forum whose whole spirit is cooperation.”
Bizzarely, my Indian counterpart chose to walk out of Pakistan and Russia's speech. Left a bad taste at a forum whose whole spirit is cooperation.
— Moeed W. Yusuf (@YusufMoeed) September 15, 2020
“Pakistan is committed to SCO as a platform for regional cooperation,” the Pakistani foreign office said in a statement. “We are actively playing a positive and constructive role and following the SCO charter to not let our bilateral relations with any country impact our engagement with SCO.”
“Today, at the meeting of NSAs [national security advisors] of SCO member states, India tried to vitiate the atmosphere by objecting to Pakistan's official map,” the statement said. “The map reaffirms Pakistan’s commitment to the UN Security Council Resolutions and the supremacy of the UN Charter.”
India had in November released a map that had claimed parts of Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, called Azad Kashmir.
The next meeting of SCO security advisers is scheduled for September 17.
