THE Group of Seven (G7) wealthy nations assembled for a meeting recently hosted by Britain in London. Three other countries, Australia, South Korea and India, were invited as ‘guests’. The first session, as was expected, was devoted to China. What has unnerved G7 nations is mainly China’s growing economic and military clout.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken talked about the ‘lofty’ international rules-based order that would cater to their ambitions. Blinken pledged robust cooperation with Britain in putting pressure on China over the Xinjiang region, and over a clampdown against civil rights in Hong Kong.

Isn’t it a cruel joke on the people of India-occupied Jammu and Kashmir that the whole region has been totally ignored by the ‘strongest democracy and the mother of all democracies’ at such an ‘august gathering of wealthy nations’?

The occupied valley has been like an open jail since the Aug 5, 2019, clampdown. While Blinken sought Britain’s cooperation in pressuring China, he simply ‘forgot’ to seek G7’s cooperation, if not ‘robust’ cooperation, in putting pressure on India to restore the occupied Jammu and Kashmir’s status and to repeal the draconian Public Safety Act, implemented since 1989, which allows Indian occupation forces to imprison anyone for up to two years without a trial.

All claims of human rights are reduced to nothing more than gimmickry guided by economic and political expediency.

Abid Mahmud Ansari
Islamabad

Published in Dawn, May 23rd, 2021