Echoing India's stance that Kashmir is a bilateral issue between New Delhi and Islamabad, Sweden has urged both the South Asian nations to engage in a dialogue through diplomatic channels to resolve the matter.
Sweden's Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom made the remarks during a telephonic conversation with her Pakistani counterpart Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Wednesday.
"Worrying situation in Jammu and Kashmir. In a telephone call today with Pakistan's FM H.E. Shah Mahmood Qureshi I stressed that the EU, including Sweden, supports a bilateral political solution between India and Pakistan over Kashmir, dialogue through diplomatic channels is crucial," tweeted Wallstrom.
Since India announced its decision to change the constitutional status of Jammu and Kashmir, a rattled Pakistan ramped up its rhetorics and has made several attempts to involve the international community in the matter.
However, India has categorically told the international community that the scrapping of Article 370 of the Constitution, which gave the special status of Jammu and Kashmir, was an internal matter.
On Tuesday, Qureshi telephoned his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian, who also asked him to engage in the dialogue with New Delhi on Kashmir.
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Islamabad has not been able to convince even the Muslim world to back it in raising the issue of Kashmir. Four of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) member states -- the Maldives, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and the UAE -- have said Kashmir is an internal matter of India.
Efforts by Pakistan's ally China too failed at the United Nations Security Council during a closed-door consultation on Kashmir last week.
Meanwhile, Pakistan has said it will knock the doors of the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
"We have decided to take Kashmir case to the International Court of Justice," Pakistan-based newspaper Dawn quoted Qureshi as saying.
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