ISLAMABAD, May 21 (APP): With just few days left for the G-20 Working Group meet on Tourism in Srinagar, Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), China along with other key members would not attend the event as it is being held in the internationally recognized disputed territory.
The Indian government announced that Turkiye, Saudi Arabia and Egypt have not confirmed their attendance, indicating they too will skip the meeting, writes the Hindu, an Indian daily on Sunday.
Union 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.
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.
UN Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues Fernand de Varennes, few days back, had also criticised the event being held in Srinagar as an effort to “normalise” 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 instrumentalising 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 prioritised and implemented, ahead of the event.
