| ID | 170769 |
| Title Proper | India-Pakistan Question and China |
| Language | ENG |
| Author | Mukerji, Asoke |
| Summary / Abstract (Note) | The initiative taken by China to revive discussions on “The India-Pakistan Question”, which had been lying dormant on the agenda of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) since December 1971, has potentially significant implications for India. This article looks at the details of “The India-Pakistan Question”, including the manner in which the UNSC twisted India’s complaint against Pakistani aggression on India’s territory in Jammu and Kashmir to broaden the scope to apply the “two-nation theory” on the basis of which the United Kingdom had partitioned British India and re-opened the accession of the Princely State of Jammu and Kashmir to India. The UNSC acknowledged that its resolutions failed to be implemented due to the inability of the Security Council to vacate the Pakistani aggression on India.
China (represented permanently in the UNSC by the Republic of China (ROC) till October 1971) was party to UNSC resolutions on “The India-Pakistan Question”. China did not adopt an activist role in drafting these resolutions between January 1948 to October 1971. After the unseating of the ROC from the UNSC and its replacement by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in October 1971, an assertive China tried to use “The India-Pakistan Question” to counter India’s actions during the December 1971 India-Pakistan war which led to the independence of Bangladesh. The PRC cast its first veto against the admission of Bangladesh to the UN in August 1972.
UNSC resolutions on this issue were overtaken by the bilateral treaty signed between India and Pakistan at Simla in July 1972. China’s latest diplomatic initiative on this subject goes against five decades of inactivity of the UNSC on “The India-Pakistan Question”. It presages China’s attempt to use her permanent membership of the UNSC to exploit “The India-Pakistan Question” as a negotiating tactic to retain Chinese occupation of India’s territory in Jammu and Kashmir. |
| `In' analytical Note | USI Journal Vol. 149, No. 618, Oct-Dec 2019; p 537-549 |
| Journal Source | USI Journal 2019-12 149, 618 |
| Key Words | China ; India-Pakistan ; Jammu and Kashmir ; India-Pakistan Question |