This was India’s fourth attempt to get Masood Azhar blacklisted as a global terrorist. In 2009, India was the lone proposer while in 2016, India’s proposal was co-sponsored by the US, France and UK. In 2017 again, the US, UK and France backed the proposal, but on every occasion, the motion was defeated with China imposing a technical hold.
The Indian government has refused to acknowledge the defeat of its UNSC resolution on designating Masood Azhar a global terrorist as a “diplomatic failure.” Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj on Friday claimed that since 2009, the Indian government has been able to garner significant global support on the issue.The Indian foreign minister’s statement came in the wake of allegations by the opposition and some independent critics that the Narendra Modi-led government has failed to garner much-needed global support for the UNSC proposal to subject Masood Azhar to a spate of sanctions. The request was put on hold by China, a veto-bearing member of the UNSC, which put a technical hold on the proposal.