UNITED NATIONS, Aug 21 (APP):As the situation in Indian Occupied Kashmir continues to deteriorate, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has again suggested dialogue between India and Pakistan to settle the grave crisis stemming from India’s annexation of the disputed region.
“The secretary-general is a strong believer in dialogue,” his spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters at the regular noon briefing at UN Headquarters in New York on Wednesday.
He was answering a question from a Pakistani journalist whether the UN chief was pushing India and Pakistan towards some of talks as a follow-up to his last week’s statement, regarded here as highly significant, on the volatile situation in occupied Kashmir.
In that statement on August 8, the secretary-general had said he had been following the situation in Jammu and Kashmir with concern, making an appeal for maximum restraint.
The position of the United Nations on this region is governed by the (UN) Charter…and applicable Security Council resolutions, the statement said. The Secretary-General also recalls the 1972 Agreement on bilateral relations between India and Pakistan also known as the Simla Agreement, which states that the final status of Jammu and Kashmir is to be settled by peaceful means, in accordance with the UN Charter.
