Very interesting facts have emerged about why China and Pakistan had to face an attempt to call a UN Security Council (UNSC) meeting on Kashmir. Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi wrote a letter of demand to the President of the Security Council on 12 December in which he spoke of an atmosphere of fear in Kashmir and increased tension in South Asia. The same day the UN approved a resolution on interreligious dialogue and peace. The UN welcomed the proposal to open the Kartarpur Corridor and called it an initiative to honor inter-religious sentiments and maintain peace in the neighborhood.
The center of discussion among the member countries of the Security Council as it was not someone else but Pakistan itself who had tabled it along with three other countries.
The language of the proposal differs from Pakistan's letter!
Most countries found the context of the initiative of the Kartarpur Corridor and the language of the proposal different from the letter of Qureshi. Those countries felt that the issue raised by Pakistan and China should be dealt with better at the bilateral level itself. The proposal was titled 'Promoting inter-religious and intercultural dialogue, understanding of cooperation for peace'. In this proposal, the agreement between India and Pakistan governments was appreciated while welcoming the decision to open the Kartapur Sahib Corridor.
France and Russia called it a bilateral issue
China had demanded a Security Council meeting on 17 December from Pakistan to discuss the situation in Kashmir, but this was not possible due to the lack of support from the remaining four countries of the Council. A French diplomatic source then said that the Kashmir issue should be resolved on a bilateral level. Other Western countries and Russian diplomats had the same view.
At least two of the UN diplomats whom Pakistan had approached to present the proposal that Pakistan would be able to present a brief in the Security Council on the situation in Kashmir immediately. It has suffered a major setback from the UN General Assembly resolution. Interestingly, this proposal was also presented by Pakistan.
