Pakistan envoy to UN meets UNGA President to discuss Kashmir issue

NEW YORK: Pakistan's Permanent Representative to the United Nations Maleeha Lodhi met with UN General Assembly President Maria Fernanda Espinosa here and briefed her about the situation in Kashmir.

In a tweet on Tuesday, Lodhi said the United Nations should live up to its obligations on Kashmir, state-run Radio Pakistan reported.

Her meeting with the UNGA president on Monday came hours after Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan said that he will raise the Kashmir issue at every international forum, including at the UN General Assembly.

Khan's address to the nation came after Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his meeting with US President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the G7 Summit in France on Monday, categorically rejected any scope for third party mediation between India and Pakistan on Kashmir.

Tensions between India and Pakistan spiked after India abrogated provisions of Article 370 of the Constitution to withdraw Jammu and Kashmir's special status and bifurcated it into two Union Territories, evoking strong reactions from Pakistan.

India has categorically told the international community that the scrapping of Article 370 was an internal matter and also advised Pakistan to accept the reality.

A rare closed-door consultation on Kashmir by the UN Security Council earlier this month ended without any outcome or statement from the powerful 15-nation UN organ, dealing a huge snub to Pakistan and its all-weather ally China to internationalise the issue, which an overwhelming majority stressed is a bilateral matter between New Delhi and Islamabad.