United Nations: India has slammed Pakistan for making "baseless and unsubstantiated allegations" against it at the UN and said Islamabad continues to waste the time of the world body and its organs by raising the Kashmir issue.
Pakistan has been raking up the issue of Kashmir and India's decision to scrap the special status of Jammu and Kashmir at meetings of the various Committees of the General Assembly.
Participating in the First Committee meeting on Wednesday, Pakistan again raised the issue of Kashmir and alleged that India recently used cluster munitions in populated areas in Jammu and Kashmir that led to civilian deaths and injury.
"I would like to note that Pakistan has once again made a number of baseless and unsubstantiated allegations against India which are not borne out of facts. This committee is aware of India's responsible conduct in abiding by its international obligations," Counsellor in India's Permanent Mission to the UN Anjani Kumar said on Thursday during a General Assembly First Committee debate on Conventional Weapons.
Kumar said Pakistan has continued to waste the precious time of the General Assembly Committee, other UN organs and various multilateral forums by raising issues "extraneous to their agenda". "I will refrain from engaging further on this issue so as not to waste any more time of this committee," Kumar said.
He voiced India's concerns over the challenges posed by transfers of conventional weapons, including small arms and light weapons to terrorists and non-State actors, which has become a major threat to international peace and security and an impediment to the full realisation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Kumar said India supported the approach of striking a balance between humanitarian concerns on landmines and legitimate defence requirements, particularly those of States that have long borders.
"India has fulfilled its obligationsrelated to the non-production of non-detectable mines as well as rendering all anti-personnel mines detectable. India also observes a moratorium on the export and transfer of landmines," he said.
Voicing India's commitment to the eventual elimination of anti-personnel landmines, Kumar said the availability of militarily effective alternative technologies that can cost effectively perform the defensive function of anti-personnel landmines will facilitate the achievement of this goal.
India has strong and effective national export controls governing the transfer of conventional weapons which conform to the highest international standards and remains committed to preventing illegal transfer of conventional weapons, Kumar told the Committee.
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