Daijiworld Media Network - New Delhi (SHP)
New Delhi, Jan 15: The United Nations Security Council will hold a second closed-door meeting on Kashmir tonight in New York an NDTV report stated. Accordingly, it is believed to have been triggered after a push from China, a well-known ally of Pakistan. Earlier in August, a similar attack was placed by China on the Centre for scrapping Article 370 of the Constitution.
However, the meeting in August did not prove fruitful to Pakistan as the council members did not censure India, agreeing that the centre's move in Jammu and Kashmir was an internal issue. Then another UNSC meeting on Kashmir, scheduled in December, was not held.
Apart from China the other four permanent members of the UN Security Council - France, Russia, the US and the UK -- consistently backed New Delhi's position that disputes between India and Pakistan are bilateral matters. The US has said that developments in Jammu and Kashmir are an internal matter of India.
One of the permanent members, France has sternly stated its stand on the Kashmir matter claiming that issue must be settled bilaterally. "As we have stated on several occasions and will continue to reiterate to our partners on the United Nations Security Council," a source said.
Although India received support to maintain Kashmir issue as an internal matter, concerns arose over the detention of political leaders and the internet restrictions which were also expressed by the US again last week.
India and Pakistan will not attend the closed-door meeting since these are open only to permanent members of the Security Council. There will also be no statement since such meetings are informal.