India on Tuesday walked out of a virtual meeting of national security advisers from the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member states after the Pakistani representative projected a map that incorrectly showed the borders of the two countries.
“At the meeting of the national security advisers (NSA) of the member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), organized by the president of the SCO (Russia), the Pakistani NSA deliberately projected a fictitious map that Pakistan has been spreading recently, ”said Foreign Ministry spokesman Anurag Srivastava.
“This was in blatant disregard of the host’s warning against him and in violation of the meeting rules. After consulting with the host, the Indian side left the meeting in protest at this juncture, “he said.
Srivastava added: “Unsurprisingly, Pakistan went on to present a misleading view of this meeting.”
People familiar with the events said, on condition of anonymity, that Pakistan’s use of a “fictitious map” as a backdrop for its representative, showing sovereign Indian territories as part of Pakistan, was a flagrant violation of the letter. of the OCS and contradicted all the established norms of the group to safeguard the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the member states.
“India issued its strong objection to Pakistan’s use of this illegal map. The Russian side, as president, tried very hard to persuade Pakistan not to do so, ”said one of the people quoted above.
Russian NSA Nikolai Patrushev conveyed to the Indian side that he was personally very grateful to his Indian counterpart Ajit Doval for attending the SCO Summit, the people said.
“Russia does not support what Pakistan has done and hopes that Pakistan’s act of provocation does not affect India’s participation in the SCO and definitely does not cast a shadow over Patrushev’s warm personal relationship with the Indian NSA, for whom it has the highest respect.” said the additional person.
Patrushev also said he looked forward to seeing Doval at upcoming events, according to people.
Pakistan issued a new map on August 4 claiming India’s union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh and parts of Gujarat state on the eve of the first anniversary of the scrapping of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status.
India reacted to the move by describing it as an “exercise in political absurdity” with no legal validity.
The political map was released by Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan during a meeting in Islamabad attended by his cabinet and senior officials, including his special assistant on national security affairs, Moeed Yusuf. Khan had said that the map was the first step towards a political struggle to achieve the right of self-determination for the people of Kashmir.
Pakistan currently does not have a formally designated NSA and Yusuf represents the country in meetings like the one held on Tuesday.
Before the statement from the Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Yusuf tweeted: “Interestingly, my Indian counterpart decided to drop the Pakistani and Russian speech. It left a bad taste in the mouth in a forum whose spirit is cooperation ”.
Yusuf also tweeted that he had “highlighted that unilateral and illegal actions in an internationally recognized disputed territory of [Jammu and Kashmir] it is a threat to regional peace and prosperity ”.
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