Warning of bloodbath as leaders clash
Pakistan and India sparred over Kashmir, Russia chided the West and said its influence in world affairs was diminishing, and China’s top diplomat warned that unilateralism and protectionism ‘‘are posing major threats to the international order’’ – a veiled reference to its ongoing tariff war with the United States.
Nations at odds with each other didn’t shy away from taking potshots yesterday as their leaders took to the podium on the fourth day of the annual UN General Assembly.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan pointedly accused Indian leader Narendra Modi of ‘‘cruelty’’ in Kashmir, and warned of a catastrophe if the two nuclear-armed nations tumbled into war.
As protesters for both sides shouted outside the UN compound in New York City, Khan said the actions of Modi’s government in the Indian portion of the disputed mountainous Muslimmajority region were shortsighted and could end in a bloodbath.
Modi, in his address an hour earlier, took a starkly different approach. While raising the spectre of terrorism – a nod to the reasons he cited for clamping down on the region, angering Pakistan – he never uttered the word ‘‘Kashmir’’, and focused on India’s economic and infrastructure development.
This year’s General Assembly has been punctuated by leaders’ absences as much as presences. While US President Donald Trump and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani showed up, both Russia’s Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping opted to stay home.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov didn’t pull any punches in his address. ‘‘It is hard for the West to accept seeing its centuries-long dominance in world affairs diminishing,’’ he said.
He criticised Nato’s decision to attack Libya, which he said had split the country apart, and noted that the West ‘‘has its own rules in the Balkans’’. Under Western intervention, he added, Venezuela’s ‘‘statehood was destroyed before our eyes’’.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said unilateralism and protectionism ‘‘are posing major threats to the international order’’, and that tariffs and provocations ‘‘may even plunge the world into recession’’.
A few countries struck a different tone. The Bahamas was one of them, as Prime Minister Hubert Minnis pleaded with the international community to tackle climate change – and encouraged tourists to visit to help the island nation rebuild after it was devastated by Hurricane Dorian last month.