China responds to Pakistan India rivalries
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BEIJING - While noticing appointment of new head of United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP), a Chinese foreign ministry’s spokesperson Friday hoped that India and Pakistan to continue to conduct calm and proper handling of relevant issues through dialogue and consultation.
“As a common neighbor and friend of Pakistan and India, China hopes that the two sides will continue to conduct calm and proper handling of relevant issues through dialogue and consultation,” Lu Kang said during his regular briefing while responding to a question asked by APP.
The spokesman also hoped that the South Asian neighbours would work together for maintaining peace and stability in the region. “The two sides will work together to maintain peace and stability in South Asia,” he added. When asked to comment on the announcement of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for the appointment of Major General Jose Eladio Alcain of Uruguay as head of mission and chief military observer for the UNMOGIP, he said, “We have noticed relevant reports.”
Alcain will succeed Major General Per Gustaf Lodin of Sweden, who will complete his two-year assignment in July 2018.
Pakistan has been urging India to allow UNMOGIP play its mandated role to monitor ceasefire violations on Line of Control (LoC) and the Working Boundary as per the UN Security Council resolutions.
The UN’s military mission is only able to operate on the Pakistani side of the Line of Control (LoC), as India refuses to accept its functioning on the other side and opposes its expansion.
India in July 2014 had asked UNMOGIP, set up in 1949, to wind up its work in Kashmir and vacate a government-provided bungalow in New Delhi. The UN mission has its main offices in the Indian occupied Kashmir capital Srinagar on the Indian side and in the Pakistani capital Islamabad as part of a UN Security Council resolution to supervise the ceasefire in the region.
