UN Security Council to hold closed-door meeting on India-Pakistan tensions

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is set to hold closed-door consultations today, May 5, to address escalating tensions between India and Pakistan following the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam, which claimed 26 lives, most of them tourists. The meeting was requested by Pakistan and scheduled by Greece, which currently holds the rotating UNSC presidency.

Pakistan's Foreign Office announced on May 4 that it would update the Council on recent regional developments, including India’s suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty.

Ambassador Evangelos Sekeris, Greece’s Permanent Representative to the UN and President of the Security Council for May, condemned the Pahalgam attack and expressed concern over rising instability. “We condemn terrorism in all its forms, wherever it occurs,” he said. “At the same time, we are concerned about the growing tensions in the region.”

India, meanwhile, has accused Pakistan of misusing the UN platform for propaganda purposes and has reached out diplomatically to eight of the ten non-permanent members of the Council in advance of the meeting.

The UNSC comprises five permanent members with veto power—China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States—and ten non-permanent members: Algeria, Denmark, Greece, Guyana, Pakistan, Panama, South Korea, Sierra Leone, Slovenia, and Somalia.