India's Permanent Representative P Harish on Tuesday, 24 June sharply rebuked Pakistan for exploiting its co-chair role at a United Nations Security Council informal meeting to raise the Kashmir issue, calling the conduct an abuse of a position that demands neutrality. The rebuke came at an Arria Formula meeting convened jointly by China and Pakistan, with their respective ambassadors presiding.

India's Position at the UN Forum

Harish was unequivocal in his response to Pakistan's Permanent Representative Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, who raised the Kashmir question as Islamabad routinely does at multilateral platforms. 'The Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir is a matter strictly internal to India. It always has been, is, and will remain so,' Harish declared. He went further, stating: 'It is incredible that a co-Chair expected to be balanced and unbiased in conduct, has chosen to politicize this forum.'

Pakistan's Own Record on UN Resolutions

India pointedly turned the tables on Islamabad's invocation of UN mandates. Pakistan itself has defied UN Security Council Resolution 47 of April 1948, which demanded that Pakistan withdraw its armed forces, security personnel, and civilians from the areas of Kashmir it had entered. Decades later, those territories remain under Pakistani occupation in violation of that very resolution. According to reports, Kashmiri residents in Pakistani-occupied areas have risen in protest, and Islamabad's security forces have reportedly killed 20 people in the region this month alone in efforts to suppress the unrest.

What the Arria Formula Meeting Was About

The forum in question was titled 'Bridging the Implementation Gap: Security Council Resolutions and Maintenance of International Peace and Security.' Arria Formula meetings are informal gatherings of the Security Council, open to member states, officials, and civil society representatives. The format, named after Venezuelan diplomat Diego Arria, was designed to allow candid discussion outside the Council's formal procedural constraints. Critics argue the format can be — and on Tuesday allegedly was — used to advance bilateral agendas under the cover of a multilateral discussion.

India's Call for a Mandate Review

Harish used the occasion to press for a broader review of the Security Council's mandates, linking the push to the ongoing UN80 process — a reform exercise marking the world body's 80th year. 'India would like to emphasise that at a time when member states are undertaking mandate implementation review under the UN80 framework for all UN General Assembly mandates in order to achieve efficiencies, there is no reason why UN Security Council mandates should be outside the purview of such UN80 frameworks,' he said. He also advocated revisiting the UN Charter's Chapter VI provisions on mediation and negotiation, arguing that interventions framed decades ago 'do not have perpetual validity' and 'warrant a review in accordance with changing circumstances and contexts.'

The Palestine Parallel

Harish cited the unresolved Palestine conflict as evidence that perpetually recycled mediation frameworks can fail to produce outcomes. 'There exists an undeniable case for reviewing outdated mediation frameworks,' he said, adding that 'any assumption of the perpetual applicability of a Chapter VI mediation intervention is erroneous to say the least.' The reference was a broader argument for institutional reform, not a conflation of the two disputes, but it signalled India's intent to challenge the selective application of UN resolutions — a long-standing Pakistani diplomatic strategy. India's pushback is expected to continue as the UN80 reform process advances through the second half of 2025.