The US President Donald Trump on Monday offered to mediate to solve the Kashmir issue between India and Pakistan during his meeting with Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan.
Mr. Trump said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked him to help ease tensions between the two neighbouring countries on the “disputed” Kashmir region and that he would love to be a mediator.
#WATCH Washington DC: Pakistan PM Imran Khan and US President Donald Trump reply to journalists when asked on Kashmir. pic.twitter.com/UM51rbsIYF
— ANI (@ANI) July 22, 2019
However, India denied that PM Modi had asked President Trump to help mediate with Pakistan over the disputed territory of Kashmir. India has maintained that Kashmir is a bilateral issue between India and Pakistan, and there could be NO third party involved. Moreover, there could be no talks until Pakistan ends cross-border terrorism.
“I would like to categorically assure the house, that no such request was made by the prime minister to the U.S. president,” Indian Foreign Minister Subramanian Jaishankar told parliament as lawmakers demanded clarification on Modi’s position.
Kashmir has been decades-old dispute and the reasons for two of three wars between India and Pakistan since their partition in 1947 following independence from British rule.
https://twitter.com/airnewsalerts/status/1153546180279713793
Meanwhile, several US Congressman have tried to damage control over President Trump’s “embarrassing remarks”. Brad Sherman apologised to India’s US envoy for President Donald Trump’s “embarrassing” remarks on Kashmir.
Everyone who knows anything about foreign policy in South Asia knows that #India consistently opposes third-party mediation re #Kashmir. Everyone knows PM Modi would never suggest such a thing. Trump’s statement is amateurish and delusional. And embarrassing. 1/2
— Rep. Brad Sherman (@BradSherman) July 22, 2019
Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Alice Wells in a tweet said that Kashmir is a bilateral issue between India and Pakistan.
https://twitter.com/State_SCA/status/1153444051368239104
Congressman Eliot L Engel, the Chairman of the powerful House Committee on Foreign Affairs spoke with Indian Ambassador Harsh Shringla.
Chairman @RepEliotEngel reaffirmed that in order for dialogue to be meaningful, Pakistan must first take concrete and irreversible steps to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure on Pakistan’s soil.https://t.co/H5z3skffTA
— House Foreign Affairs Committee (@HouseForeign) July 22, 2019