The 3-day G20 meeting held from May 22-24 is the most significant international event held in J&K since the revocation of Article 370 in 2019. The presence of 60 foreign delegates at the event is being seen as world’s implicit support for India on Kashmir, reports Riaz Wani
The three-day G20 tourism working group meeting from May 22-24 brought some fresh attention to Kashmir. After a long time, even foreign media was allowed to cover the region and they produced reports that were more nuanced in their description of the prevailing situation. Besides, the meeting drew a strong statement from China which cited the region’s “disputed” status as the reason for not attending it. Besides, four other countries – Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Oman – didn’t participate. But they stopped short of issuing any statement.
The rest did attend, although with a scaled-down presence, among them the three Islamic countries – UAE, Indonesia and Bangladesh. This is being billed as a triumph of sorts for India’s stance on Kashmir. More so, as the countries are members of the Organization of Islamic Conference, a 57-country grouping which has a stand similiar to that of China on Kashmir.
Over the course of three days, the G20 delegates engaged in meetings and some sightseeing in a small area around the famous Dal Lake. Some far-off resorts such as Gulmarg which were earlier a part of their itinerary were dropped at the last minute, in view of the security issues.
At the end of it, both the union government and the local administration said they had every reason to be satisfied with the outcome. For one, the event passed without an incident despite the threats from the militant groups, a turn of events that was reflective of both the unprecedented security measures put in place by the government and the decline of militancy. High-security arrangements were made on the route to the airport and the delegates were taken in a cavalcade of vehicles to their accommodations along Dal Lake.
However, the shadow of the recent ambushes in Armoury and Pooch in Jammu division that between them killed ten security personnel loomed over the event as the security agencies feared that the militants might try to replicate the attack in the Valley. But the government was able to prevent it, a success that added to the perception of the normalcy in the region that the government was keen to convey to the outside world.
