Pakistan: Pakistan on Wednesday once again raised the Kashmir issue at the United Nations and even linked it to the Palestine issue in a shoddy attempt to draw a parallel. India’s response though ignored the matter with precision and instead came in the form of highlighting its rich culutral heritage and commitment to peace.
Pakistan’s Permanent Representative at the UN Maleeha Lodhi spoke of Kashmir at a high-level forum on Culture of Peace in which she said ‘foreign occupation’ stands as a threat to peace and prosperity in many places. “Nowhere is this more apparent than in the pain and suffering of the people of occupied Jammu and Kashmir and Palestine,” she said.
Comparing J&K and Palestine though has been Pakistan’s desperate attempt at best to put the global spotlight on the Indian state. While India’s response in the past has been swift and lethal, Srinivas Prasad – India’s representative at the UN – chose to completely ignore it this time around. “A Culture of Peace is not just an abstract value or principle to be discussed and extolled in conferences, but needs to be actively built into global relationships between and among nation states,” he said. “It rests on good neighbourliness and a respect for other states. It, therefore, behooves on us, the members of the UN to work actively towards advancing the goal of a Culture of Peace.”
While Pakistan has repeatedly attempted to raise the Kashmir issue at the UN, it is the only country to do so and almost always fails to elicit a response. Back home though, the new government has been harping on closer ties with India and has reportedly also sought US help in calming flayed nerves.
In return, India – as always – has maintained its commitment towards peace but has also maintained that friendly relations can exist only when Pakistan stops supporting terrorists and terror networks.
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