OCCUPIED SRINAGAR: A G20 tourism meeting was set to begin on Monday amid high security in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), with China and Pakistan condemning holding the event in the territory.

China opposes G20 tourism meeting in IIOJK, will not attend

Police said last week that security had been beefed up “to avoid any chance of terrorist attack during the G20” meeting, the first diplomatic event in the Indian-occupied area since New Delhi revoked its limited autonomy and took direct control in 2019.

The three-day gathering will take place at a sprawling, well-guarded venue on the shores of Dal Lake in Srinagar.

India boosts security for G20 meeting in IIOJK after attacks

Roads leading to the location have been freshly black-topped, and electricity poles lit up in the colours of India’s national flag to show what officials say is “normalcy and peace returning” to the region.

India has been promoting tourism in the region and more than a million of its citizens visited last year.

No Chinese delegates will be attending the event.

Mushaal urges G20 countries to boycott summit in IIOJK

India and its northern neighbour are locked in a military standoff along their mostly undemarcated border in the Ladakh region.

“China firmly opposes holding any form of G20 meeting in disputed territory and will not attend such meetings,” foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told reporters Friday.

Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia are reportedly also unlikely to join.

India holds the G20 presidency for 2023 and has planned more than 100 meetings across the country.

China has already stayed away from events in both Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh.

Hundreds detained

Non-G20 member Pakistan said holding the tourism meeting in the territory violated international law, UN Security Council resolutions and bilateral agreements.

Bilawal arrives in AJK to protest India’s violation of international laws

Pakistan’s foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said last week that India was displaying its “arrogance to the world” and that “it shows their pettiness”, triggering a sharp retort from New Delhi.

Last week, the UN Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues, Fernand de Varennes, said New Delhi was seeking to use the G20 meeting to “portray an international seal of approval” on a situation that “should be decried and condemned”. India rejected those comments.

Residents have chafed under the stepped-up security measures, hundreds have been detained in police stations and thousands including shopkeepers have received calls from officials warning them against any “signs of protest or trouble”.