Second visit of Foreign Heads of Mission to Jammu and Kashmir
The first such official delegation of envoys of foreign missions stationed in Delhi travelled to the union territory on 9-10 January, 2020.
By IAR Desk
New Delhi: As a part of its ongoing outreach efforts, India’s Ministry of External Affairs is oganising a visit of a second group of foreign Heads of Mission to the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir on 12-13 February 2020.
The group comprises of 25 foreign Heads of Mission representing various geographical regions. They represent – Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, Republic of Austria, Republic of Bulgaria, Canada, Czech Republic, Kingdom of Denmark, Dominican Republic, the European Union, French Republic, Federal Republic of Germany, Republic of Guinea, Republic of Hungary, Italy, Republic of Kenya, Kyrgyz Republic, Mexico, Republic of Namibia, Kingdom of Netherlands, New Zealand, Republic of Poland, Republic of Rwanda, Slovak Republic, Republic of Tajikistan, Republic of Uganda, and Republic of Uzbekistan.
The Ministry of External Affairs announced today that the group is visiting Baramulla, Srinagar and Jammu where they would meet representatives of the civil society, including youth from different ethnic, religious and socio-economic communities, local business and political leaders, civil administration and representatives of mainstream media. They will also receive briefing about the development programmes being implemented, get assessment of the security situation, and witness for themselves the progressive normalisation of the situation.
The first such official delegation of envoys of foreign missions stationed in Delhi had travelled to the union territory on 9-10 January, 2020. The trip was falicitated in order to ‘assess’ the ground situation and get a sense of Indian government’s ‘efforts’ in bringing normalcy in the UT.
The countries who had been part of the first delegation were United States, South Korea, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Fiji, Maldives, Norway, Philippines, Morocco, Argentina, Peru, Niger, Nigeria, Guyana and Togo.
Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar had said, “The first meeting was with the security officials to understand the challenges of maintaining security, including the threat of terrorism in the Union Territory. This was followed by an interaction with civil society from all walks of life and from all over J&K. The group also interacted with the local media as well as a group of political leaders.”
This time around the delegation comprises mainly the member-states of the European Union. External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar is due to visit Brussels in the coming ways to prepare the ground for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit for a India-EU summit in March.
The EU had recently decided to defer voting on a resolution against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, adopted by the Indian parliament in December, 2019. The Act fast-tracked Indian citizenship for persecuted minorities from Islamic states of Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan, who had entered India by 2014. Since not applicable to Muslims from these countries who had entered India, it has been termed ‘discriminatory’ by some EU lawmakers. India has been at pains to point out that the act was not discriminatory and it was an internal matter of the country.
Last year in October a delegation of members of the European Parliament had visited the newly formed union territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
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