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United Nations, May 20 (KMS): Pakistan has urged the United Nations to provide leadership to deal with the root causes of food insecurity that has been exacerbated by the war in Ukraine, and conflict, as old disputes, like Kashmir, fester and new ones emerge.
Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari speaking in the UN Security Council said, “It is indeed the United Nations which has been founded for this very purpose – to resolve conflicts; to end wars; to make peace; to battle hunger, poverty and desperation,” Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari told the UN Security Council.
Speaking in the open debate on “Conflict and Food Security”, he roundly criticized India’s annexation of Jammu and Kashmir, in violation of UN resolutions, and its atrocities against the oppressed Kashmiri people.
“The actions of the 05 August 2019 by India in illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir is not only an assault on the people of Kashmir, but is an assault on the United Nations, it is an assault on the Security Council and its resolutions and the Fourth Geneva Convention,” the foreign minister said.
He said, “The inaction of this body as the internationally recognized disputed status of the region is undermined. The inaction of this forum while the Muslim majority of Kashmiris are being turned into a minority in their own land, in their own home, leads the youth of Kashmir to question that who will resolve this conflict? Who will deliver the peace they were promised”?
“We challenge those that worry about food security, resolve the Kashmir dispute. Open the doors to peace in South Asia and watch how the farmers of Pakistan and India can feed the world,” FM Bilawal added.
With rising great power rivalries, political dialogue has frequently frozen, and often, this Security Council has been paralyzed, he said. “Old conflicts have festered; and new conflicts have emerged – eroding the edifice of the world order established 76 years ago by the principles of the UN charter.”
In the debate, which was convened by the United States, FM Bilawal underscored the need for deploying dialogue and diplomacy in pursuit of peace.
Highlighting the grim situation resulting from food insecurity, he said that eighty percent of the 800 million are undernourished, and the 40 million facing famine, inhabit countries riven by conflict or emerging from conflict.
“The people of occupied territories in Palestine and IOJK are constantly imprisoned by perpetual conflict. They are arbitrarily and inhumanely suffering from immense misery – including hunger,” FM Bilawal said.
