Washington once again claimed that the Trump administration played a key role in “de-escalations” between India and Pakistan in recent months, as part of its broader commitment to mediating disputes and advancing peaceful resolutions worldwide. Speaking at the UN Security Council, Washington’s Representative Ambassador Dorothy Shea also condemned China’s “expansive and unlawful” maritime claims in the South China Sea and the dangerous ways it attempts to enforce them.
“Across the globe, the United States continues to work with parties to disputes, wherever possible, to find peaceful solutions,” Ms Shea said at the UN Security Council open debate on ‘Multilateralism and Peaceful Settlement of Disputes’ held under Pakistan’s presidency of the Council.
Pakistan, currently a non-permanent member of the 15-nation Council, is the President of the UN body for the month of July. Under its presidency, it is holding two “signature” events on ‘Promoting International Peace and Security through Multilateralism and the Peaceful Settlement of Disputes’ and on ‘cooperation between the United Nations and regional and sub-regional organisations (Organisation of Islamic Cooperation).’
In a meeting presided over by Pakistan Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, the US Representative Ambassador said in the past three months alone, the US leadership has delivered “de-escalations between Israel and Iran, between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, and between India and Pakistan”.
“The United States, under President Trump’s leadership, played an important role in encouraging the parties to reach these resolutions, which we applaud and support,” she said.
Washington also called on all UN member states involved in disputes or conflicts to follow the example of those countries and to make every effort to resolve their disputes and cease violence, the diplomat said.
India’s Response
Since May 10, Mr. Trump, as well as his administration, has repeated the claim several times on various occasions that the U.S. President “helped settle” the tensions between India and Pakistan and that he told the nuclear-armed South Asian neighbours that America will do a “lot of trade” with them if they stop the conflict.
New Delhi, however, has maintained that it was clearly conveyed to Washington that Islamabad wanted the ceasefire and emphasised no mediation would be tolerated. The US claim contradicts India’s narrative on the ceasefire agreement.
India’s Permanent Representative to the UN in New York, Ambassador Parvathaneni Harish, on Wednesday, noted that India launched Operation Sindoor targeting terrorist camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK), which was focused, measured, and non-escalatory in nature. “On achieving its primary objectives, a cessation of military activities was directly concluded at the request of Pakistan,” he said.
US On China
Washington also condemned China’s expansive and unlawful maritime claims in the South China Sea and the dangerous and destabilising ways it attempts to enforce them.
“We again call on China to abide by the 2016 ruling of the Arbitral Tribunal convened under the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention, which is both final and legally binding on China and the Philippines,” she said.
Ms Shea said for nine years now, China has refused to live up to its obligations as a party to the Convention, and instead continued to publicly reject the ruling, interfere with the exercise of high seas freedoms, and assert expansive and unlawful claims that infringe on the sovereign rights and jurisdictions of other South China Sea littoral states, including the Philippines, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Vietnam.
