Pakistan's G20 outburst: Tracing Islamabad's continuous objections to bloc's Srinagar meet

Pakistan has raised objections over India organising G20 events in Srinagar, Kashmir, reported Pakistan Military Monitor. Notably, these concerns are raised by Pakistan after India released a full calendar of G20 events. Further, it is to be noted that Pakistan is a member of G20.  As India has released the full list of events of the G20, from May 22 to 24, it has come to light that Srinagar would be hosting the third meeting of the G20 Tourism Working Group under India's G20 Presidency. 

Pakistan raises concern over G20 Events 

On April 7, 2023, India released a complete calendar of events running up to the summit, which featured meetings of the G20 and Youth-20 in Srinagar, Kashmir, and Leh, Ladakh, in April and May, respectively. In its statement, Pakistan said, "The Foreign Office had in June last year cautioned G20 countries against accepting Delhi's proposal for holding some of the meetings of the bloc's next year's summit in India-held Jammu and Kashmir, saying India attempted to legitimise its illegal control of the disputed region." These arrangements are always made after thorough discussions with and approval by the member participants.

More surprisingly, Pakistan is not a member of the G20 bloc but has voiced opposition to India hosting G-20 events in Srinagar, Kashmir. Pakistan's foreign ministry had cautioned G20 in June of last year however it went haywire. Further, the G20 meeting did not take the warning by Islamabad into consideration and carried on with its regular activity. This led to Pakistan's request to India, to stop hosting G20 meetings in Kashmir, also getting rejected.

According to Pakistan's authorities, India's decision to host some meetings in Srinagar is "self-serving." "India's irresponsible move is the latest in a series of self-serving measures to perpetuate its illegal occupation of Jammu and Kashmir in sheer disregard of the UN Security Council resolutions and violation of the principles of the UN Charter and international law," reads the statement by Pakistan's foreign office, reported ANI, citing Pakistan Military Monitor. 

(With inputs from ANI)