Osama’s host, Parl attacker shouldn’t sermonise: EAM

The country that hosted Osama bin Laden and attacked a neighbouring nation’s Parliament has no credentials to sermonise at the UN, foreign minister S Jaishankar has said, after Pakistan raised the Kashmir issue in the UN Security Council on Wednesday. Jaishankar’s remarks came after Pakistan foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto raised the Kashmir issue while speaking on the UNSC debate on reformed multilateralism.
“Multilateral solutions under the umbrella of the UN Security Council offer the most effective approach to promoting peace and resolving conflicts. Parties to a dispute cannot advocate multilateral process one day, multilateral reforms one day and insist on bilateral avenues the next and ultimately impose unilateral actions,” Bhutto said in an indirect reference to India’s stand on Jammu and Kashmir.
Jaishankar in his response slammed Bhutto for terming Kashmir as an “unfinished agenda”. Bhutto said that UNSC was primarily responsible for maintaining international peace and security. Jaishankar said that the credibility of the UN depends on its effective response to the key challenges of our time be it pandemic, climate change, conflicts, or terrorism.

“While searching for solutions, our discourse must never accept normalisation of such threats. The question of justifying what the world regards as unacceptable should not even arise. That certainly applies to state sponsorship of cross-border terrorism. Nor can hosting Osama Bin Laden and attacking a neighbouring Parliament serve as credentials to sermonise before this council,” he said.

Jaishankar also indirectly hit out at China: “On the challenge of terrorism, even as the world is coming together with a more collective response, multilateral platforms are being misused to justify and protect perpetrators.”

Pakistan has used the UN, meant for multilateral agenda, to discuss bilateral issues. Pakistan will be in UNSC for the next two years as a non-permanent member and is expected to misuse the platform by raking up Kashmir with support from China.