‘Naive’ to Presume India Isolated Internationally on Kashmir Issue, Ex-Indian Envoy Says

Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry on Sunday said that India has been left “increasingly isolated” over the Kashmir dispute, days after Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock claimed her government has a “responsibility” in resolving the territorial matter. Baerbock also endorsed Islamabad’s position of getting the UN involved in the Kashmir issue.

A former Indian ambassador says that it would be “naïve to accept the presumption” that New Delhi has been left isolated globally as far as its stance on the Jammu and Kashmir region is concerned.

“While Pakistan continues to internationalize the issue despite clear agreements in the past to discuss all issues bilaterally, New Delhi has always stuck to the bilateral track despite the fact that whole of Jammu and Kashmir is an integral and inalienable part of India,” Ambassador Anil Trigunayat, a distinguished fellow at the New Delhi-based think tank Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF), told Sputnik.

New Delhi has rejected "external" interference in resolving the Kashmir dispute, including by former US President Donald Trump, who also offered to mediate in the matter.

Trigunayat criticized some Western politicians for endorsing Islamabad’s stance on the Kashmir matter, as he underlined that such a “myopic vision” completely ignores the “reality of Pakistan being the perpetrator of cross-border terrorism against India for over four decades.”

“The so-called uninvited Samaritans (Western politicians supporting Pakistan over India) would do well to check the facts and their own history and prevail upon the errant state to desist from the path of extremism and terrorism rather than being complicit in such quests by Islamabad,” Trigunayat stated.

A war of words broke out between New Delhi and Islamabad over comments on the Jammu and Kashmir issue by Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock at a joint press availability with her Pakistani counterpart Bilawal Bhutto Zardari in Bonn last week.

The Indian Foreign Ministry took exception to the German FM’s statement, accusing Germany of doing “grave injustice” to victims of cross-border terrorism that New Delhi insists is backed by Islamabad.

"All serious and conscientious members of the global community have a role and responsibility to call out international terrorism, especially of a cross-border nature,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said in a statement over the weekend.

The Indian official underlined that the UN Security Council was “still pursuing” Pakistan-based militants involved in plotting the terrorist attacks in Mumbai in 2008.

New Delhi further said that Germany has “undermined the cause of peace” by failing to recognize the dangers of cross-border terrorism.

The diplomatic row over the German foreign minister's remarks surfaced as New Delhi also conveyed its “objection” to Washington over the visit of US Ambassador to Islamabad Donald Blome to Pakistan-administered Kashmir on October 2-5.

In his visit to the disputed region, Blome also referred to the area as "Azad" ("Free") Jammu and Kashmir, which stoked a row in India.

Last month, Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar was critical of the US decision to sell $450 million worth of spare parts to Pakistan for its F-16 fighter jet fleet, as he expressed concerns that the American planes could be deployed at the India border rather than being used for counter-terror operations.

While India and Pakistan control separate parts of Jammu and Kashmir region, New Delhi has consistently urged Islamabad to “vacate” the territory under its control, claiming full sovereignty over the entire region.

For its part, Pakistan rejected the Indian parliament’s decision in 2019 to revoke the semi-autonomous status of the erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir state and bifurcate the Indian-administered part of the region into two federal territories.

Islamabad downgraded its diplomatic and commercial ties with New Delhi over the 2019 decision, and has maintained that it would resume talks with its neighbor only if it restores the semi-autonomous status of the erstwhile state.