Pakistan rants "betrayal" after India successfully hosts G20 meet in Kashmir

Islamabad, May 26: The 3rd Tourism Working Group meeting in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), dominated Indian and international headlines. The three-day G20 meeting successfully concluded on Wednesday. Despite Pakistan expressing its so-called concerns, India maintained that its neighbor has no locus standi on India's internal matters.

 

 

Pakistan has cried foul after India successfully hosted the G20 meeting in Srinagar despite Islamabad's efforts to derail it and threats from terrorist outfits.

 

Addressing media briefing, Pakistan Foreign Ministry's spokesperson once again raised its so-called concern about the event conducted in the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir. "Pakistan has categorically rejected India’s move to host the meeting of the G-20 Tourism Working Group in Srinagar on 22-24 May 2023," it said.

 

Repeating the same, the spokesperson said, "Jammu and Kashmir is an internationally recognized disputed territory. The dispute has remained on the agenda of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) for over seven decades. In that backdrop, India hosted this Meeting in IIOJK in complete disregard of the relevant UN Security Council Resolutions, principles of the UN Charter and international law."

 

It should be noted that the experts are claiming that this significant G20 meet in Srinagar will eventually boost tourism resulting employment generation in the union territory. However, it seems Pakistan wants to spread blatant lies in front of the world.

"Holding the G-20 meeting in a disputed territory is a betrayal of the people of IIOJK. For the last seven decades, they have been waiting for the international community to pay attention to their plight and bring an end to the occupation and human rights violations," it added.

"Tourism and development cannot be promoted by holding the local population hostage and denying them their rights and freedoms. By holding the G-20 meeting in Srinagar India cannot hide the reality of its illegal occupation of IIOJK and oppression of the Kashmiri people," he said.

 

"India’s facade of normalcy in Kashmir is met by the harsh reality that IIOJK remains one of the most militarized zones on the planet. The extreme security measures, arbitrary arrests and harassment of the local population around the Srinagar meeting, refute the claims of normalcy in the colonized territory."

However, despite such allegations, the G20 delegates arrived in Srinagar, on Monday to attend the third tourism working group meeting at the Sher-e-Kashmir International Convention Centre (SKICC) by the banks of the famous Dal Lake. In the first formal meeting of the group, five key priority areas—green tourism, digitalization, skills, MSMEs, and destination management—were discussed. Post deliberating at the conference, the delegates were seen enjoying and experiencing J&K's local cuisine, art, culture and scenic beauty.

 

 

"India has clearly failed in hiding the reality in IIOJK behind a veneer of normalcy, as demonstrated by low-level representation and the absence of a number of important invitees at the Srinagar meeting."

Notably, three G20 member countries — China, Saudi Arabia and Turkey — and guest country Egypt had boycotted the event. To this, Pakistan has thanked their allies.

"We greatly appreciate the People’s Republic of China, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Republic of Türkiye, the Arab Republic of Egypt and the Sultanate of Oman for not attending the Srinagar meeting. These countries have stood for international law and for the primacy of the UN Charter," it said.

 

The delegates who participated in the deliberations applauded the Indian arrangements and the execution of the successful meeting. From Singapore to South Korea and the Netherlands to France, delegates from the participating G20 countries called the event a big success.

"The G-20 was established, primarily, to address global financial and economic issues. By holding this meeting in the occupied territory, India has politicized yet another international forum, and is exploiting its position as the current Chair to advance its self-serving agenda," it said.

"India should instead provide unhindered access to the international media and independent human rights organizations to report on the situation in IIOJK. It must bring an end to the repression it has unleashed there, agree to the establishment of the UN Commission of Inquiry and hold a UN supervised plebiscite for the people of Kashmir to determine their own future."

Pakistan "will continue to extend its moral, diplomatic and political support to the Kashmiri people’s just struggle for realization of their inalienable right to self-determination, as enshrined in the relevant UN Security Council Resolutions."