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.