Pakistan has slammed India’s plans to hold G20 meetings in Srinagar, branding it a “self-serving” attempt to “perpetuate its illegal occupation” of Kashmir.
“Pakistan vehemently condemns these moves,” a statement issued by the country’s foreign office said. Pakistan media quoted sources as saying the government would speak to the US, UK and other G20 members to stop New Delhi from holding the senior official-level meetings in the Kashmir region. Islamabad has also been lobbying G20 member states like China, Turkey and Saudi Arabia to oppose India’s plans.
The Pakistan foreign ministry accused India of “exploiting its membership of an important international grouping to advance” its political agenda.
Pakistan’s objection comes after India which holds the rotating G20 presidency unveiled on Friday its calendar of events leading up to a September summit of G20 country leaders.
The calendar includes a meeting from May 24-26 of the G20 Tourism Group in Srinagar. The city is getting a facelift in advance of the international talks with roads being repaved, flowers planted and government buildings painted. The G20 visitors are expected to be taken to Dachigam National Park and the Gulmarg tourist resort.
“India’s irresponsible move is the latest in a series of self-serving measures to perpetuate its illegal occupation of Jammu and Kashmir in sheer disregard of the UN Security Council resolutions and in violation of the principles of the UN Charter and international law,” Pakistan’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
India’s also hosting consultative G20 forums on youth affairs in both Srinagar and Leh, in the neighbouring region of Ladakh, a decision that Pakistan called “equally disconcerting.”
In a riposte to China, the April 26 start of the three-day youth affairs consultative meeting in Leh will mark exactly three years since security forces first detected unusual numbers of the People’s Liberation Army troops amassing along the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh.
India already angered China when it hosted in March a two-day G20 research and innovation event in Itanagar, the state capital of Arunachal Pradesh which Beijing claims as the “the southern part of Tibet.”
India has said it has the right to hold the G20 meetings in both the Kashmir region and Arunachal Pradesh as they are integral parts of the country.
India is hosting some 200 meetings in 56 major cities “from Kashmir in the north to Kanyakumari in the south” across India on various themes under the banner “One Earth, One Family, One Future.”
The Chinese government did not attend the G20 Arunachal Pradesh meeting. But it responded to the meeting by publishing a map of Arunachal Pradesh that contained Chinese names for 11 places in the state. Home Minister Amit Shah followed up Beijing’s new map with a visit to Arunachal Pradesh this week in which he declared “no-one can encroach on even an inch of our land.”
China has not said yet whether it will attend the events in Srinagar and in Leh. But last month it asked “relevant parties” to avoid “politicising” issues, noting that the G20 was a premier forum for global economic cooperation.
Attendance will be focused on whether the three G20 countries that are also members of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) — Turkey, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia – will attend the Srinagar events. The OIC has criticised India in the past for its move in 2019 to revoke Kashmir’s special status.
