The 71st Miss World pageant will be held in Indian occupied Kashmir in December this year.

The announcement was made by Miss World CEO Julia Eric Morley on Monday during a visit to Kashmir.

“Truthfully, I am so happy. It is emotional for us, to see such beauty,” Morley said.

“Thank you, Kashmir. You are wonderful people. God bless you and we are looking forward to coming back,” she added.

“You have such beauty and everyone is being very kind and helpful. I thank you from the bottom of my heart.”

Morley was occupied by Karolina Bielawska, who is the current Miss World, as well Miss World India Sini Shetty and Miss World Caribbean Emmy Pena.

The pageant is set to be held on December 8, but crews and participants will start arriving in November.

Bielawska said she had not expected Kashmir to be so beautiful.

“We’ve been talking about Kashmir and I knew there would be beautiful scenery. But what we’ve seen today was really blowing our minds,” she said.

The Miss World is the oldest beauty pageant in the world and has been held since 1951.

Kashmir is disputed territory between Pakistan and India and is one of the militarised regions in the world.