New Delhi/Moscow, Feb 9 (UNI) Russia on Wednesday reaffirmed its position of non-intervention on the Kashmir issue between India and Pakistan. The Russian Foreign Ministry said: “We reaffirm the invariability of Russia’s position on adherence to the principle of non-intervention as regards the territorial dispute between India and Pakistan. “All disagreements between India and Pakistan should be settled through political and diplomatic means on a bilateral basis.” The statement came as India’s Ambassador to Moscow Pavan Kapoor met Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin and discussed Afghanistan, bilateral and other issues, the Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday. “The parties discussed several regional issues, including Afghanistan, and discussed prospects for increasing bilateral cooperation, including through international organizations,” Russian news agency Sputnik reported citing the ministry’s statement. In particular, the diplomats confirmed “mutual interest” in further cooperation within the United Nations, the statement read. The meeting between Pavan Kapoor and the Russian senior diplomat comes days after Vershinin’s visit to Delhi during which he had held talks with Reenat Sandhu, Secretary (West) in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), and raised the Ukrainian issue. The Russian side had presented its side of the Ukraine issue to India, “and on the tensions fanned by the Western nations, NATO and the United States”. India had abstained from a vote on the Ukraine issue at the UNSC, to which the US had voiced disappointment. The meeting also comes ahead of the visit of the Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan to Moscow later this month, in a first such visit in two decades by a Pakistan PM, signifying the growing closeness in ties between Moscow and Islamabad. India had on Wednesday rejected references to Jammu and Kashmir in the China-Pakistan joint statement and to the CPEC economic corridor and said it resolutely opposes any attempts to change the status quo of the areas under Pakistan’s illegal occupation. In a statement, the Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi, asked the two countries not to interfere in its internal affairs. The statement read: “We have noted references to Jammu & Kashmir and the so-called China-Pakistan Economic Corridor in the joint statement between China and Pakistan issued on 06 February 2022. “We have always rejected such references and our position is well known to China and Pakistan. In this instance too, we reject reference to Jammu and Kashmir in the joint statement. “The Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and the Union Territory of Ladakh have been, are and will always remain integral and inalienable parts of India. We expect the parties concerned not to interfere in matters that are internal affairs of India.”
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