MEA says China 'should refrain from raising Kashmir at UNSC'

New Delhi: India on Thursday hit out at China for helping Pakistan in trying to raise the Kashmir issue at the UN Security Council, saying Beijing should seriously reflect on the global consensus and refrain from such actions in the future.

Pakistan has repeatedly tried to raise the Kashmir issue at the UN Security Council with China's help, but it failed again to find any support. The latest attempt failed as other countries of the 15-member council felt Kashmir is a bilateral matter between India and Pakistan.

The overwhelming majority of the UNSC was of the view that it was not the right forum for such issues, Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said at a briefing when asked about the developments in the UNSC.

India also said Islamabad's "desperate" measures to "peddle" baseless allegations and presenting an alarming scenario about the Valley lacked credibility.

"Pakistan can avoid this global embarrassment time and again by putting their energy in something constructive," the External Affairs Ministry spokesperson said at a media briefing.

China, an 'all-weather ally' of Pakistan, on Wednesday made a fresh bid to raise the Kashmir issue at an informal closed-door meeting of the UNSC in New York.

"China should seriously reflect on this global consensus, draw proper lessons and refrain from taking such action in future," Kumar said, replying to a question on why India has not reacted strongly to Beijing raising the Kashmir issue at the UNSC.

"I suggest that this question should be posed to the Chinese side as well," he said.

"An effort was made by Pakistan through a member of the UNSC to once again misuse the platform of UNSC for discussing a bilateral matter," he added.

"The overwhelming majority of the UNSC members were of the view that UNSC was not the right forum for such issues and this should be discussed bilaterally between India and Pakistan. The informal closed-door meeting, therefore, concluded without any outcome," he said.

The current move by China was the third such attempt since August when the special status granted to Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 of the Constitution was scrapped by the government, and the state was bifurcated into two Union Territories.

Asked how many member countries out of 15 opposed the move, the MEA spokesperson said an overwhelming view was that the UNSC should not to be misused by Pakistan through a member. However, he did not give specific number of countries.

In August, China pushed for a UNSC meeting on Kashmir after the government scrapped J-K's special status. However, the meeting did not yield desired results for China.

Last month, France, the US, the UK and Russia foiled an attempt by China to discuss Kashmir at a closed-door meeting of the UNSC.