Srinagar
India will be focusing on a multilateral agenda at the high-level UN General Assembly (UNGA) session that begins on Tuesday and let Pakistan be a “one-trick pony” on Kashmir if it wants to, IANS quoted India’s Permanent Representative Syed Akbaruddin as saying.
The UN works best on the basis of multilateralism and “India’s positions based on partnerships get a great resonance”, IANS quoted Syed as saying.
According to the report, he said: “If somebody else would like to be a one-trick pony, it is for them to regurgitate that act. We’ve handled this act many times in the past and are confident we’ll do so again.”
“Solo players in a multilateral context have neither a past nor a future” and get “no resonance in such matters”, he added.
Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has said that Islamabad would bring up Kashmir at the UNGA and give “unequivocal support to the cause”, Radio Pakistan has reported.
Pakistan has been raising Kashmir at all UN forums, regardless of the topic of the meetings.
A newsgatherer IANS quoted Akbaruddin as saying that even when India talks about terrorism, it does not treat it as just a bilateral issue but deals with it in the international context of havoc it wreaks around the world, for example, the Boko Haram in Africa, and terrorist groups elsewhere.
Led by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj at the UN session, India will focus on five topics: reformed multilateralism, climate change action, health, development, and peacekeeping, he said.
“Sushma Swaraj is scheduled to address the UNGA on Saturday at the morning session scheduled to start at 9 a.m. Listed as the fifth speaker, she will likely speak around 7.15 p.m. (India time),” the report said.
Qureshi’s speech is set for Saturday’s afternoon session, which will give him an opportunity to react to Sushma Swaraj’s address, the report added.
If he raises issues relating to India, the nation would have a right of reply which could take place towards the end of that session or Monday’s session, said IANS report.
Customarily a junior diplomat exercises the right of reply at the UNGA high-level meeting, IANS reported.
