INDIA & Pakistan Should Find Lasting Solution To Kashmir Issue: Boris Johnson
AS Pakistan is fanatically trying to internationalize the so-called Kashmir issue, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has literally accepted India’s stand that it is a bilateral issue between the two neighboring nations. Johnson has said that it is for India and Pakistan to find a lasting solution to the Kashmir issue in accordance with the wishes of the Kashmiri people. Both India and Pakistan are UK’s “important partners”, he said responding to a letter received from his party’s MP Bob Blackman. The ruling Conservative Party’s MP has supported India’s decision to revoke Article 370 and withdraw the special status of Jammu and Kashmir. Johnson added “The government’s long-standing position remains that it is for India and Pakistan to find a lasting political solution to the situation in Kashmir, in accordance with the wishes of the Kashmiri people.” He also stressed the need for observing “calm and restraint” by New Delhi and Pakistan saying he remains in regular contact with both Indian and Pakistani governments. Britain continues to monitor the situation in Kashmir closely. “Both India and Pakistan are important partners to the UK. Our respective bilateral relationships continue to flourish. This is demonstrated by cooperation with both countries on a range of issues, as well as the vibrancy of our people-to-people links bolstered by large and active Indian and Pakistani diaspora here in the UK,” Johnson added. Blackman, the north London MP who has been a long-time supporter of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had issued his letter as part of a tit-for-tat letter spat triggered in the UK in the days after the revocation of Article 370. The MP has accused the Opposition MPs of making provocative claims against India which has a long-established tradition of respecting all faiths in his letter. “Constitutional changes are an internal matter for India. There is a widely respected convention that we do not interfere in the domestic affairs of a third country, especially a long-standing friend and ally like India,” he wrote, calling on the British PM to condemn the Opposition Labour Party for breaking from Britain’s long-held position that any matter concerning Kashmir was a “strictly bilateral issue”. Meanwhile in India, Raj Nath Singh Defence Minister and veteran ruling BJP leader, has gone on record saying Jammu & Kashmir along with Pakistan Occupied Kashmir- (POK) -is an integral part of India. If anything related to Kashmir is to be discussed with Pakistan it will be POK, he said. Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, who is in a shaky position following his Government’s inability to mobilize international support in favour of its stand on abrogation of the special status from Jammu & Kashmir, remains committed to raise the issue in the UN General Assembly.(edited by Pranab Kumar Chakravarty with image courtesy to politicshome.com)