Islamabad, May 23, 2023 (PPI-OT): Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said that India is abusing its presidency of the G20 by holding a tourism conference in disputed Jammu and Kashmir. Bilawal Bhutto Zardari in an interview with France based news agency, AFP, said, “I wish I could say I was surprised, but I think that this is a continuation in what is becoming a norm now, of India’s arrogance on the international stage.”

“They’re abusing their presidency of the G20 to push their colonial agenda, but if they think that by holding one event in occupied Kashmir they can silence the voice of the Kashmiri people, then I believe that they are truly mistaken,” he told AFP in Muzaffarabad. “Those countries who make it a point to remind us and protest how outrageous it is that international law has been violated in Europe: I believe that they should be just as outraged when international law is violated in Kashmir,” he said, in a reference to the West’s reaction over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

China, which also claims the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh in full as part of Tibet, has stood by Pakistan in condemning the meeting to promote tourism in the area – renowned for its lakes, meadows and snow-capped mountains, the AFP said. Muslim nations Saudi Arabia and Turkey are not sending government representation, while some Western countries have scaled back their presence, according to reports, the news agency added. “One of the most militarised zones in the world can never be seen as normal,” Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said.

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