India says 'natural' to hold G20 meeting in Jammu and Kashmir

ANKARA

India on Thursday said it was "natural" to hold G20 meetings in Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh region as they are "integral and inseparable" parts of India.

The statement by India's Ministry of External Affairs days after Pakistan "vehemently" condemned India’s decision to hold the G20 Tourism Working Group meeting in disputed Jammu and Kashmir next month.

On Thursday, during a weekly press briefing, Arindam Bagchi, a spokesman at the Ministry of External Affairs when asked to react to the Pakistan objection said it is "natural" to hold the event in the two Union territories of India.

"These G20 events, meetings are being held across India, in every region, of India, they are being organized. Holding such meetings in Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh is very natural as we have always considered them integral and inalienable parts of India," he said.

Earlier this week, Pakistan's Foreign Ministry expressed "its strong indignation over India’s decision to hold the G20 Tourism Working Group meeting in Srinagar on 22-24 May 2023."

“Scheduling of two other meetings of a consultative forum on youth affairs (Y-20) in Leh and Srinagar in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) is equally disconcerting,” it said.

Islamabad accused New Delhi of "again" exploiting its membership of an important international grouping for advancing its "self-serving agenda", by holding the forthcoming meeting in a disputed region.

The third meeting of the G20 Tourism Working Group under India’s G20 Presidency will be held from May 22 to 24 in Srinagar, the capital of Indian-administered Kashmir.

Disputed region

Kashmir is held by India and Pakistan in parts and claimed by both in full. A small sliver of the region is also controlled by China.

Since they were partitioned in 1947, the two countries have fought three wars – in 1948, 1965, and 1971 – two of them over Kashmir.

Some Kashmiri groups have been fighting against Indian rule for independence, or unification with neighboring Pakistan.

According to several human rights groups, thousands of people have been killed and tortured in the conflict since 1989.