Poland’s Ambassador to India Adam Burakowski on Monday said Kashmir was a problem that India and Pakistan have to resolve bilaterally. “Poland hopes that both countries can work out a mutually beneficial solution bilaterally,” Burakowski told The Indian Express in an interview.
The European country holds the presidency of the United Nations Security Council for August. Pakistan approached the world body following India’s decision last week to scrap Kashmir’s special status under Article 370 of Constitution.
“Poland believes that the dispute can only be resolved by peaceful means,” he said. “Like the European Union, we are in favour of dialogue between India and Pakistan.”
The Polish envoy said that “as a non-permanent member of the UNSC, Poland stands ready, if needed, to engage in preventing actions impacting security situation”. He added: “I would like to emphasise on the word ‘bilaterally’, that’s the keyword.”
According to the Simla Agreement of 1972 and the Lahore Declaration of 1999, Kashmir is a bilateral matter between India and Pakistan.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, who is in China at present, had briefed the Polish side about the implications of scrapping Kashmir’s special status on August 8. A statement issued by the Polish foreign ministry last week said Jaishankar described the amendment as being of a “strictly internal nature” and aimed at “bringing security to the region that is particularly vulnerable to terrorist attacks”.
Last week, Pakistan wrote a letter to the United Nations against the abrogation of Kashmir’s special status, India Today reported on Tuesday. However, United Nations Security Council President Joanna Wronecka refused to comment on the matter following a meeting with Pakistan’s permanent representative to the UN Maleeha Lodhi.
Meanwhile, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Monday told Jaishankar that Beijing was “highly concerned” about the situation in Kashmir. Wang told Jaishankar that China was opposed to any unilateral action that would complicate the situation in the region. India conveyed to China that Jammu and Kashmir was the country’s internal matter.
Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi had said on Saturday that Islamabad would move a motion at the Security Counci with Beijing’s support to condemn New Delhi for revoking Jammu and Kashmir’s autonomy and bifurcating it.
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