UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres Thursday urged India and Pakistan to settle the festering Kashmir problem through dialogue, as tensions in the disputed region escalate. "The secretary-general reiterates his call on the parties to resolve the issue through engagement and dialogue," his spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, said in response to a question at the regular noon briefing at UN Headquarters in New York.
The spokesman was asked about the UN chief's reaction to the sharply deteriorating situation in Indian occupied Kashmir where security forces continue to use brutal tactics against the people demanding their right to self-determination. At a press conference last month, his first since assuming the post of UN secretary-general, Guterres indirectly acknowledged that he was engaged in quiet diplomacy to bring about a dialogue between the two South Asian neighbours to resolve the decades-old Kashmir dispute.
"Why do you think I met three times the Prime Minister of Pakistan (Muhammad Nawaz Sharif) and two times the Prime Minister of India (Narendra Modi)," Guterres said with a smile, responding to a question from a Pakistani journalist about the mounting tensions in the region. But the UN has not said what progress, if any, Guterres has achieved in the course of his contacts with the leaders of India and Pakistan.