Jaishankar on Kashmir: ‘When West interferes, it’s for freedom; others have malign intention’

S Jaishankar on Tuesday stressed the importance of having an international order just like a domestic order. He slammed the United Nations for making the Kashmir invasion a dispute and turning the attacker and victim at par and called for having a «strong and fair» UN.

In his remarks at the Session on 'Thrones and Thorns: Defending the Integrity of Nations' at Raisina Dialogue on Tuesday, Jaishankar called the occupation of some parts of Kashmir by Pakistan «the longest standing illegal occupation» of territory by another country after the Second World War.

Jaishankar said, «Let's give you a second example. We all speak of sovereignty and territorial integrity.

All of us agree. It's a vital principle. It's a bedrock of global rules.

After the Second World War, the longest-standing illegal, I would say presence, occupation of a territory by another country pertains to India, what we saw in Kashmir. Now we went to the UN, what was an invasion was made into a dispute. So the attacker and the victim were put on par.

Who were the culpable parties? UK, Canada, Belgium, Australia, USA. So, pardon me, I have some question marks on that one. Now, I can give you many more.

We speak today of political interference. When the West goes out into other countries, it's apparently in perseverance of democratic freedoms. When other countries come into the West, it seems to have a very malign intention.»

Calling for a strong and fair UN, EAM Jaishankar said, «So I think we need to have an order, there must be fairness.

We need a strong UN, but a strong UN requires a fair UN. A strong global order must have some basic consistency of standards. We have military crews to our east in Myanmar.