Guterres tells Modi all sides should avoid escalation

By Arul Louis

United Nations, Aug 27 (IANS) UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has discussed Kashmir with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and told him that all the sides should avoid escalation, according to the former's spokesperson.

Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters on Monday that at their meeting on Sunday in Biarritz, France, on the sidelines of the G7 summit, "the issue of Kashmir did come up.

"For the Secretary-General's part, he reiterated the message that he has been saying publicly, and that's basically a need for all parties to avoid any sort of escalation," he said.

Guterres has convened an international summit on climate change at the UN, which Modi is scheduled to attend, and the main focus of their meeting was on that subject.

Dujarric said that they also had "a long and fruitful discussion" on climate change issues.

After their meeting, Modi tweeted that they had an "excellent meeting" at which they "had extensive deliberations on key issues, most notably ways to strengthen the efforts to mitigate climate change".

Guterres presented Modi in October 2018 with the UN's Champions of Earth award for his leadership in combating climate change.

On August 8, in the first statement after India revoked Jammu and Kashmir's special status, Dujarric said that Guterres also "recalls the 1972 Agreement on bilateral relations between India and Pakistan, also known as the Simla Agreement".

He acknowledged that it "states that the final status of Jammu and Kashmir is to be settled by peaceful means, in accordance with the Charter of the UN".

India considers the Simla Agreement as the cornerstone of the principle of bilaterally dealing with disputes with Pakistan with no third party involvement.

(Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in and followed on Twitter @arulouis)