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A planned private United Nations Security Council discussion of India and Pakistan's dispute over Kashmir has angered India and spurred a boycott by its allies Russia and Mauritius, council envoys said on Wednesday.
The seminar, to be held on Thursday, has been organised by Mexico despite an informal agreement by council members earlier this month to leave the dispute to bilateral diplomatic efforts outside the United Nations.
"It's one way of having members of the Security Council deal with the issue without it being on the council agenda," said one council envoy, speaking on condition of anonymity.
But Indian Ambassador Vijay Kunhianandan Nambiar said the seminar should not take place.
"We do not see a place for any multilateral effort under the current circumstances," Nambiar told Reuters.
Indian diplomats have 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.
But Nambiar said he would not comment on whether the seminar was biased.
"We know the kind of people who have been invited," he said.
Mexico's UN mission had no immediate comment.
The session is set to take place in a private UN meeting room rather than the normal council chambers and has no official status.
But Russia and Mauritius, which have close ties to India, have quietly let it be known they would not attend.
Scheduled to address the seminar were Nicholas Platt, president of the New York-based Asia Society, Kashmiri US businessman Farooq Kathwari and New York Times correspondent and Asia expert Barbara Crossette.
Platt, a former US ambassador to Pakistan and the Philippines, and Kathwari, chairman of home furnishings maker Ethan Allen Interiors Inc, are members of the Kashmir Study Group, headquartered in suburban Larchmont, New York.
The group favours a stronger US role in efforts to resolve the Kashmir dispute and has issued a plan calling for an independent Kashmir.
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