ISLAMABAD    -   Foreign Minister Bilaw­al Bhutto Zardari’s suc­cessful visit to Germa­ny has irked India after he raised the Kashmir issue in Berlin.

Bilawal undertook an official visit to Germa­ny on 6-7 October 2022 on the invitation of German Foreign Minis­ter Annalena Baerbock.

At a joint news con­ference with Bilawal af­ter a meeting, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baer­bock said that Berlin had a “role and re­sponsibility” with regard to the tension over Kashmir. The top German diplomat also hailed a February 2021 Kashmir cease-fire agreement between the nuclear-armed nations, urging both the sides to build on it. 

She stressed that Germany supports “in­tensively the en­gagement of the United Nations” to find a peaceful solution to the dispute.

“So, we encourage Pa­kistan, and we encour­age India to follow the track of the cease-fire, to follow the track of the United Nations, and to intensify the political dialogue, and also the political and practical cooperations in the re­gion,” Baerbock added.

Later, the Indian 

 held delegation-level talks with his German counterpart. The two leaders reviewed the whole gamut of bilateral relations and discussed regional and interna­tional issues of common interest.

Bilawal is now back home af­ter the Germany visit. During his stay, he underscored the high importance Pakistan attaches to its longstanding ties of amity and cooperation with Germany.

The Foreign Minister reaf­firmed keen desire to further strengthen the multifaceted bi­lateral cooperation, particular­ly in the fields of trade, invest­ment, education and energy.

Thanking Germany for its sub­stantial support to flood relief efforts, the Foreign Minister said that the cataclysmic devastation caused by the flash floods in Pa­kistan had underlined the need for working together to address common challenges such as cli­mate change and food security.

The delegation talks were fol­lowed by a joint news briefing that covered a whole range of is­sues from bilateral cooperation to regional and global issues in­cluding Jammu and Kashmir and Afghanistan. Germany also announced additional 10 mil­lion € for flood relief assistance.

The controversy originally erupted when Donald Blome, US ambassador to Islamabad, made a three-day visit to Azad Jammu Kashmir. “I’m honoured to visit during my first trip to AJK,” the US embassy quoted Blome as saying on Twitter after touring historic sites there. The US dip­lomat held meetings with se­nior AJK officials, as well as ac­ademic, business, cultural, and civil society representatives. 

The US embassy noted later in a formal statement that Blome’s visit was designed to promote “the US-Pakistan partnership and highlight the two countries’ deep economic, cultural and people-to-people ties.” It is rare for a US Ambassador to travel to AJK. Pakistan and India have fought three wars over the dis­puted territory which is divided between Pakistan and India and claimed in full by both the rivals.

Islamabad rejects Indian claims and calls Kashmir an in­ternationally recognized dis­puted territory in line with a decades-old United Nations res­olution. The dispute remains at the center of bilateral tensions.

Yesterday, Pakistan rejected the Indian MEA spokesperson’s unwarranted remarks on the Joint Press Stakeout of the For­eign Ministers of Pakistan and Germany. “Pakistan rejects the unwarranted remarks made by the Official Spokesperson of the Indian Ministry of External Af­fairs (MEA) on the recent Joint Press Stakeout of the Foreign Ministers of Pakistan and Ger­many, during the official visit of Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari to Berlin,” said a foreign ministry statement.

It added: “Highlighting the centrality of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute, both the For­eign Ministers agreed that there was a role and responsibility of the international community as well as a need for intensified ef­forts from the United Nations, with regards to a peaceful and just resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute.”

The statement said while the views expressed by the Foreign Ministers elucidated the grow­ing urgency and concern in the international community on the Kashmir dispute, the Indi­an MEA’s gratuitous remarks had exposed the desperation of a country that finds itself in­creasingly isolated on the issue of its illegal occupation of Jam­mu and Kashmir and the rep­rehensible human rights viola­tions being perpetrated by its ruthless occupation force in the occupied territory.

“India’s proclivity to hoist the bogey of cross-border terrorism whenever there is a call for in­creased scrutiny of its unlawful occupation and brutality in Jam­mu and Kashmir, is well known. It must, however, realize that no amount of obfuscation will change the reality of its repres­sion in the Indian Illegally Oc­cupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK). India’s credentials as a purveyor of state-terrorism in the IIOJK and as an instigator of cross-border terrorism in Paki­stan need no reiteration. Hollow denials and evasion of responsi­bility will no longer cover-up India’s mischievous strategy of posing as a ‘victim’ of terror­ism while shifting blame else­where,” the statement said.

It said Pakistan’s achieve­ments and contribution to the cause of counterterrorism are globally acknowledged. “On the contrary, India’s allusion to FATF, displaying its characteris­tic bias, hostility and partiality towards Pakistan, corroborates Pakistan’s long-standing view that India has been politiciz­ing FATF and trying to misuse its membership of FATF to tar­get Pakistan. FATF needs to take note of the irresponsible state­ment by India,” it added.