India Rejects ‘Unwarranted’ Erdogan Remarks On Kashmir

NEW DELHI-India on September 29 rejected the “unwarranted references” to the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir made by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during his recent address to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), asserting that no external party has any locus standi on the issue.

“India rejects the unwarranted references to the Indian Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir made by the President of Turkey during his UNGA address. This is a matter, as you would understand, pertaining to India’s territorial integrity and sovereignty, and no external party has any locus standi on this issue,” Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said during a bi-weekly media briefing in New Delhi.

Erdogan has raised the Kashmir issue at the UN General Assembly in the past as well, drawing similar responses from New Delhi.

Last year, India reiterated its “well-known stance” on Kashmir, under which there is no scope for any third-party role or mediation.

Last week, India also rejected references to the country in the Joint Communique of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation’s  “Contact Group on Jammu and Kashmir”, terming them “unwarranted and factually incorrect” and saying that the grouping has no locus standi to pronounce on India’s internal matters.

The MEA said that the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh are an “integral and inalienable” part of India and that “no amount of repetition of politically motivated propaganda can change this reality”. (IANS)