Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Indonesia stay away from G20 Srinagar meeting

With the G20 Working Group meet on Tourism in Srinagar, Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) is around the corner, China along with other key members would not attend the event as it is being held in the internationally-recognized disputed territory, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.  

The Indian government announced that Turkiye, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and Egypt have not confirmed their attendance, indicating they too will skip the meeting, reported the Hindu newspaper. 

Indian Tourism Secretary Arvind Singh briefed the media in Delhi and said that out of G-20 member countries, China, Turkiye and Saudi Arabia had not confirmed their participation. Among other invited countries, Egypt had not registered so far, Singh added.

China later said it won’t participate. “China is firmly opposed to holding any kind of G-20 meetings in disputed territory, and will not attend such meetings,” the daily quoted Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin. 

While China, Turkiye and Saudi Arabia are G-20 members, Egypt is a special invitee this year. 

Several prominent Indian journalists including Rana Ayyub had raised questions over Modi’s government ploy.  

China won’t attend Srinagar G-20 meet; Turkey, Saudi and Egypt too unlikely https://t.co/L5foqMzEZx

— Rana Ayyub (@RanaAyyub) May 20, 2023

The Modi’s government is trying to hoodwink the world by hosting an international event in IIOJK since the abolition of the special status of the former disputed area and amendment to Article 370 in August 2019, which drew international condemnation.  

The Hindu further says that Turkiye, Saudi Arabia and Egypt are all members of the Organisation for Islamic Cooperation (OIC) that had been very critical of India’s changes in IIOJK.

Security everywhere

A G20 tourism meeting was set to begin on Monday amid high security in Indian-administered Kashmir, with China and Pakistan condemning holding the event in the disputed territory.

Police said last week that security had been beefed up "to avoid any chance of attack during the G20" meeting, the first diplomatic event in the territory 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.

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.

Bilawal says ‘India showing its arrogance to world’

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

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".

UN Rapporteur slams India

UN Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues Fernand de Varennes, few days back, had also criticized the event being held in Srinagar as an effort to “normalize” human rights violations. 

He noted that human rights violations had risen dramatically in IIOJK since 2019 after Indian government revoked the special status of the territory. 

In a statement, he said, by holding a G20 meeting of the working group on tourism on 22nd of this month, the government of India was seeking to normalize what some have described as a military occupation by instrumentalizing a G20 meeting and portray an international ‘seal of approval’. 

News 18, another Indian media outlet, in its report said that the administration was making every effort to present a grand spectacle for the delegates arriving in IIOJK.  

In this connection, various projects from the Srinagar Smart City initiative had been prioritized and implemented, ahead of the event. 

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.

AJK PM demands G-20 countries to boycott summit

Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Prime Minister Chaudhry Anwar-ul-Haq has said that the Indian bid to host a meeting of G-20 nations in occupied Jammu and Kashmir was yet another tactic to hoodwink the international community.

Terming Jammu and Kashmir as an internationally recognized disputed territory, the PM said India has no justification to host an international event in the region which it has occupied illegally by usurping the fundamental rights of Kashmiris.

According to a statement on Sunday, he said, “Holding the G20 meeting in Srinagar is a violation of international laws”, he said adding that the Occupied Kashmir was presently the largest military zone in the world where Indian occupation forces have been committing serious violations of human rights day in and day out.”

Thanking the Chinese government for boycotting the events being hosted by New Delhi in Srinagar and Leh, the PM said that it was high time that the other members of the forum should follow suit and boycott the meeting being held in the disputed territory.

“Kashmiris living on both sides of the ceasefire line and around the world are protesting against the G20 meeting in Occupied Jammu and Kashmir”, he said, adding that India’s motive behind the controversial move was to create a notion that everything was honky dory in Kashmir.

He said that the ground situation in the held territory was contrary to what India had been projecting. He said that innocent civilians, mostly young boys, were being martyred by the Indian occupation forces day in and day out, whereas Hurriyat leaders, and political and human rights activists had been thrown behind bars. He said that Indian occupation forces were involved in heinous war crimes in Kashmir.

The Prime Minister said that the G-20 countries should put pressure on India to give Kashmiris their right to self-determination. He said that India was hell-bent on changing the demography of Occupied Kashmir to convert the Muslim majority into a minority.

He said that for the establishment of peace in the region, it was imperative to resolve the Kashmir issue according to the wishes of the Kashmiri people. India’s illegal, immoral, and unconstitutional actions, he said, cannot weaken the resolve of Kashmiris.

He said that the day was not far when sacrifices would come to fruition and their legitimate struggle for the right to self-determination would reach its logical conclusion.