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Mexico pulls the plug on 'offending' Kashmir seminar

Mexico's United Nations mission put off indefinitely on Thursday a planned private Security Council seminar on the Kashmir crisis that had angered India and spurred a boycott by its allies Russia and Mauritius.

A spokeswoman for Mexico said the session had been delayed due to a scheduling conflict and would be rescheduled in two weeks.

But a council envoy said Mexico would have to work hard to get diplomats to attend. "There was a less than enthusiastic response to it," said the envoy, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The low-key and unpublicised seminar that initially had been scheduled for Thursday afternoon was organised by Mexico despite an informal agreement by council members earlier this month to leave the dispute between India and Pakistan over Kashmir to bilateral diplomatic efforts outside the United Nations.

Indian Ambassador Vijay Kunhianandan Nambiar complained the seminar should not take place and Russia and Mauritius, which have close ties to New Delhi, quietly let it be known they would not attend.

Indian diplomats also complained that Mexico, which invited the outside speakers, had stacked the discussion to favour Pakistan's point of view in the dispute, diplomats said.

Two of the scheduled speakers are members of the Kashmir Study Group, a group headquartered in suburban Larchmont, New York, that has issued a plan calling for an independent Kashmir.

Reuters

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