UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan's permanent representative at the United Nations, Munir Akram, Thursday presented a three-point formula to address the ongoing Russia-Ukraine crisis.
In an interview with Geo News, Akram said: "Three steps should be taken to end the war; ceasefire, negotiation, and implementation on the previous agreements.”
He maintained that Pakistan wants consistency in the implementation of the principles of the UN charter in every matter.
“In Ukraine’s conflict, both sides have their positions and some important interests,” he said and added that the war broke out due to a conflict of interests.
“The Ukraine issue should be resolved as per the UN charter,” he said, adding that Prime Minister Imran Khan had already conveyed the message to Russian President Vladimir Putin during his recent meeting in Moscow.
Underscoring the need for diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict, Akram said:” War is the failure of diplomacy.”
Responding to a question about Pakistan’s abstention from voting in UNGA during a resolution about Russia, he said that Islamabad took the decision in the national interest.
“China among 35 countries abstained from the voting," he added.
The ambassador said that the US and Russia had old enmity but Pakistan has to see its own interest. “If we take a one-sided position, then we have no room for diplomacy.”
Responding to another query, he said that they tabled the decades-old Kashmir issue in the UNSC, which called for the holding of a plebiscite among Kashmiris and the right to self-determination.
The ambassador maintained that if they take the Kashmir issue to the UN General Assembly then Pakistan could not get a better decision than the one made in the UNSC.
Today we saw how much effort the big powers had to put in to get to 140 votes in the UN, Akram added.
A day earlier, Munir Akram, while addressing the emergency special session of the UNGA in New York, had said that Pakistan is committed to the fundamental principles of the UN Charter, self-determination of peoples, non-use or threat of use of force, sovereignty and territorial integrity of States, and pacific settlement of disputes.
The ambassador said Pakistan upholds the principle of equal and indivisible security for all. These principles must be consistently and universally respected, he had added.
He had said Pakistan remains deeply concerned at the recent turn of events.
The ambassador had said we had since repeatedly stressed the need for de-escalation, renewed negotiations, sustained dialogue, and continuous diplomacy.
Additional input from Radio Pakistan.
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