Indian ambassador to UN slams interference from ‘international busybodies’ over Kashmir
- Comments come as UN Security Council holds first formal meeting on disputed region in almost 50 years
- US President Donald Trump tells Pakistan’s Imran Khan it is important for India and Pakistan to reduce tensions in area through ‘bilateral dialogue’
India’s ambassador to the United Nations on Friday slammed international interference over Kashmir, after the Security Council held its first formal meeting on the disputed region in almost 50 years.
The comments came as US President Donald Trump told Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan in a call on Friday that it was important that India and Pakistan reduce tensions in Kashmir and Jammu through “bilateral dialogue”, according to a White House statement.
The UN discussions, which were requested by Pakistan and China and took place behind closed doors, follow New Delhi’s decision to strip its portion of the Muslim-majority territory of its autonomy earlier this month.
“We do not need international busybodies to try to tell us how to run our lives. We are a billion plus people,” Syed Akbaruddin told reporters at the UN headquarters in New York after the meeting.
It is extremely rare for the Security Council to discuss Kashmir, which has been divided between India and Pakistan since independence from Britain in 1947. It last met to formally discuss the issue in 1971.