The Foreign Office (FO) on Thursday rejected recent remarks made by India’s foreign minister on Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) as “baseless claims” while asking his country to vacate occupied areas of the region. The statement comes a day after India’s External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, referring to AJK, said the Kashmir dispute would be solved after the “return of the stolen part of Kashmir which is under illegal Pakistani occupation”. Speaking during a session at the Chatham House think-tank in London on Wednesday, Jaishankar had said: “I think the path we are waiting for is the return of the stolen part of Kashmir, which is under illegal Pakistani occupation. When that’s done, I assure you, Kashmir [issue is] solved.” The comments came in response to a query by a journalist – who said India was occupying Kashmir illegally – about the possibility of India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking US President Donald Trump’s involvement to solve the dispute. “I think we have done a good job solving most of [the problem],” Jaishankar said, insisting that the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019 and the polls in the region in October 2024 were part of that. He added that “restoring growth, economic activity and social justice” was another step towards purported efforts to solve the Kashmir issue. Responding to those statements during a weekly press briefing today, FO spokesperson Shafqat Ali Khan said: “Instead of making baseless claims about Azad Jammu and Kashmir, India should vacate the large territories of Jammu and Kashmir under its occupation from the last 77 years. “We reject the remarks made by the Indian external affairs minister on Jammu and Kashmir during an event held at Chatham House, London, on 5th March 2025,” Shafqat stated. Noting that India-occupied Kashmir (IoK) was an internationally recognised disputed territory, the FO official said Jaishankar’s remarks “misrepresent the ground realities and contravene the international law”. “The relevant UN Security Council resolutions stipulate that the final status of Jammu and Kashmir is to be determined through a free and impartial plebiscite under the UN auspices. India’s prevarication cannot change this reality,” Shafqat asserted. Responding to the Indian minister’s claims about the elections held in IoK last year, the FO spokesperson said: “We also wish to underscore that any electoral exercise pursuant to the Indian constitution cannot serve as a substitute to grant of right to self-determination.” CM Omar Abdullah’s National Conference and its ally, the Indian National Congress, scored an emphatic victory in October 2024 in the disputed region’s first state election since 2014. “Similarly, the decades-old grievances of the Kashmiri people cannot be meaningfully addressed through economic activity down the barrel of a gun,” Shafqat said, replying to Jaishankar’s remarks on the topic. The FO official said India “must realise that a peaceful settlement of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute in accordance with the relevant UN Security Council resolutions and wishes of the Kashmiri people is imperative for a lasting peace in South Asia”. In August 2019, Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had revoked occupied Kashmir’s special status by repealing Article 370 of the Indian constitution. The country’s Supreme Court had upheld that order in December 2023. Soon after the elections in November last year, the legislative assembly of IoK had called for the restoration of the region’s special status but Modi rejected that demand. The two countries saw a heated exchange in January this year as the military strongly reacted to the Indian army chief calling Pakistan the “epicentre of terrorism”. “It would be wise not to indulge in self-delusion, and appreciate the ground reality,” the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) had said. Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Asim Munir had also rubbished those “hollow statements” and vowed a befitting response to any “misadventure” against Pakistan. Addressing the AJK Legislative Assembly on February 5, PM Shehbaz Sharif had reiterated Pakistan’s offer to India to hold a dialogue to resolve the Kashmir issue. However, at the same time, the prime minister had asserted that Pakistan would not hesitate to use its “complete strength” for its national interests.