#Russia continues to consistently promote normalisation of #India - #Pakistan ties. We hope that existing divergenc… https://t.co/diLEEAkphz — Dmitry Polyanskiy (@Dpol_un) 1565966887000

LONDON: The UK did not back China or Pakistan at the closed-door United Nations Security Council (UNSC) meeting about Kashmir on Friday, British diplomatic sources have revealed.Senior UK diplomatic sources told TOI on Monday: “I can confirm we did not take sides in the debate and did not side with China against India. As you know, our longstanding position is that it is for India and Pakistan to find a lasting political solution on Kashmir. China called for the meeting. We had no involvement in calling for it. China wanted to say that unilateral action by India to revoke Article 370 was destabilising.”Neither India nor Pakistan were present.“There was no formal statement issued at the end of the meeting and no further action determined. This is the first time in 50 or 60 years that the UNSC has talked about Kashmir. The UK has always been of the view that Kashmir is a matter for Pakistan and India to resolve,” the source said.Over the weekend several journalists in India said on social media that two countries at the meeting had asked for a public statement and China had circulated a draft statement critical of India. The journalists said China was supported by the UK and that India's biggest support came from France and the US. The UK foreign office has refused to comment on the UNSC meeting as it was held in private.Indian twitterati went ballistic upon reading that the UK had backed Pakistan, with one tweeting: “Indian corporates should exit Britain and open offices in Europe.”Another tweeted: “Has there been any recent noise about Ireland? How about Falklands? How about British overseas territories? Why is the permanent five members of the UNSC are China, France, the Russian Federation, the UK, and the US. it still holding on to it (sic). Time to ask these questions.”“I request @FinMinIndia @CimGOI to not sign any FTA with UK (sic),” another wrote.One Indian journalist tweeted: “One million Kashmiris in Britain. UK’s support for Pakistan in UNSC evidence of early elections in Britain?”But UK diplomatic sources on Monday said: “We don’t know where this line came from that the UK backed a draft statement by China or backed China. It is not true. It must have come from one of the other members, as it did not come from the UK. There was no draft statement. There was talk of publishing a statement afterwards and the UK position was if there was an agreed position we will consider it, but there was no agreed position, so no statement to draft. It was just a debate.”UK diplomatic sources said that France and the US had not backed New Delhi and instead had “taken a similar neutral position”. “China had backed Pakistan,” the source said. “China at the UN always tends to take Pakistan’s side.”The source did not clarify what position Russia took. However, the first deputy permanent representative of Russia to the UN, Dmitry Polyanskiy, tweeted on Friday: "Russia continues to consistently promote normalisation of India - Pakistan ties. We hope that existing divergences around Kashmir will be settled bilaterally by political and diplomatic means only on the basis of Simla Agreement of 1972 and Lahore declaration of 1999, in accordance with UN Charter, relevant UN resolutions and bilateral agreements between India and Pakistan. ""We are friends and good partners with both India and Pakistan and both peoples. We have no hidden agendas. So we will open-heartedly continue to engage with Islamabad and New Delhi in order to help both of them come to terms and have good neighbourly relations."