India on Tuesday told multinational consumer brands with a presence in the country that it expected them and their affiliates elsewhere to “refrain from false and misleading comments on matters of sovereignty and territorial integrity”.

This was articulated by the external affairs ministry in a statement on the series of measures it had initiated after a Pakistani dealer of the South Korean automobile brand Hyundai posted a tweet in support of “Kashmir Solidarity Day”, which Pakistan observes annually on February 5.

While advising MNCs that they should not comment on matters of sovereignty and territorial integrity, the ministry made it clear that India “welcomes investments by foreign companies in various sectors”.

Amid boycott calls of Hyundai across social media platforms in India, the post was pulled down and the automobile company — which has a sizable presence in India for over two decades — issued a detailed statement expressing regret. The statement was issued on a day South Korean foreign minister Chung Eui-yong called external affairs minister S. Jaishankar.

According to MEA spokesman Arindam Bagchi, “while they discussed several issues, the RoK foreign minister also conveyed that they regretted the offence caused to the people and government of India by the social media post”.

On Sunday, India’s ambassador in Seoul had contacted the Hyundai headquarters and sought an explanation, after which the “offending post” was removed. South Korea’s ambassador in India was summoned on Monday and India’s strong displeasure on the “unacceptable social media post by Hyundai Pakistan” was conveyed to him.

“It was highlighted that this matter concerned India’s territorial integrity on which there could be no compromise. We expected the company to take appropriate action to properly address these issues,” Bagchi said.

In Rajya Sabha, commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal said: “This issue has been taken up both with the government there and the company concerned. They (Hyundai) have already issued a clarification yesterday. We have also asked them to be more forceful in their unequivocal apology on this issue,” he said.

The South Korean firm regretted the offence caused to Indians by “unauthorised Kashmir-related social media posts” by its distributor in Pakistan and said the action was against its global policy.

In its statement expressing regret for “the unofficial social media activity”, Hyundai India said: “As a business policy, Hyundai Motor Company does not comment on political or religious issues in any specific region. Therefore, it is clearly against Hyundai Motor’s policy that the independently owned distributor in Pakistan made unauthorised Kashmir-related social media posts from their own accounts.

At the same time, there was no word from the ministry on whether the US charge d’affaires had been similarly summoned for an earlier post in support of Kashmir.