Pakistan is stoking terrorism against India in the wake of an administrative change in contested territory, according to a top Indian diplomat.
“One state is using terminology of jihad against and promoting violence in India,” Syed Akbaruddin, India’s ambassador at the United Nations, told reporters Friday. “All issues between India and Pakistan — as well as between India and any other country — will be resolved bilaterally, peacefully, and in a manner that behooves normal inter-state relations between countries.”
The envoy made that comment following a rare Security Council meeting on the tensions in Kashmir, a Muslim-majority border region that has driven the rivalry between nuclear-armed neighbors Pakistan and India. The closed-door consultations took place after India tightened control of the territory on the Indian side of the unofficial boundary that has divided the region for decades, a limited diplomatic victory for Pakistan, which is trying to rally international condemnation of the decision.
“The fact that this meeting took place is testimony to the fact that this is an internationally recognized dispute,” Maleeha Lodhi, the Pakistani ambassador to the United Nations, told reporters after the meeting. “I think today this meeting nullifies India’s claim that Jammu and Kashmir is an internal matter for India.”
China bolstered Pakistan’s diplomatic position, backing the call for a Security Council session and criticizing India’s decision to rescind the semi-autonomous status of Jammu and Kashmir and put the region on lockdown over the last two weeks.
“It’s obvious that the constitutional amendment by India has changed the status quo in Kashmir, causing tensions in the region,” Chinese Ambassador Zhang Jun told reporters after the briefing.
India has implemented strict security measures since making the administrative change, cutting internet access and imposing a nightly curfew that police have enforced by shooting pellet guns at local residents. Akbaruddin defended those policies by noting that no one has died in the combustible territory since the central government revoked the semi-autonomous status of the region, and promised that the government would “move towards normalcy” gradually.
“India remains committed to ensure that the situation there remains calm and peaceful,” he said.
Kashmir has been dubbed “the world’s most dangerous place,” as Pakistan and India have fought two full-scale wars, in addition to the Kargil Conflict of 1999, for control of the territory. But the region is also a hotbed of terrorist groups that operate with Pakistan’s tactic approval, which has diminished Western opposition to the move. The United States implicitly sided with India on Friday, echoing India’s rhetoric about the controversy in a summary of a phone call between President Trump and Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan.
“The president conveyed the importance of India and Pakistan reducing tensions through bilateral dialogue regarding the situation in Jammu and Kashmir,” the White House press office announced.
In parallel, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s team highlighted the opportunities for U.S.-India cooperation in a readout of a meeting between Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan and Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar in New Delhi.
“They also discussed our complementary visions of a free and open Indo-Pacific region and how best to advance our cooperation, including with like-minded partners,” State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said Friday in a bulletin that made no explicit reference to the situation in Jammu and Kashmir.
The differing maneuvers by Chinese and American diplomats over the last week reflect the broader geopolitical stakes of the controversy, according to experts in South Asia policy. China regards Pakistan as a key partner in its effort to gain access to a strategically significant port, while the United States hopes that India will function as a counterweight to Beijing’s ambitions in the Indo-Pacific region.
“I think that the Kashmir issue in general over the past year has been a positive for the U.S. and a negative for China,” Jeff Smith, an analyst at the Heritage Foundation, told the Washington Examiner. “What this did was, I think, underscore where the alignment stands now, with the U.S. sort of taking an India-friendly position that it’s internal and China doing it’s best to symbolically at least support Pakistan’s decision, which earns it really no goodwill [with India].”
China’s envoy at the United Nations ended his criticism on a conciliatory note. “Both India and Pakistan are China’s friendly neighbors and we are all major developing countries,” Zhang said.
The remarks irritated India nonetheless, as Akbaruddin accused the Chinese and Pakistani diplomats of trying to “masquerade” as if they were expressing “the will of the international community” before putting the blame for any ensuing violence on China’s ally, Pakistan.
“We are saddened that terrorism is being fueled, language and incendiary talk of jihad is being mentioned by people who should know better,” the Indian diplomat said. “We stand ready to continue our efforts towards peaceful resolutions of all issues in an atmosphere free of terrorism and violence.”
