US President Donald Trump on Thursday reiterated his offer to mediate the Kashmir issue. He said it was up to India and Pakistan to resolve the Kashmir issue, but he was ready to assist if the two countries wanted his help to resolve the decades-old dispute.
This came after External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar informed Parliament that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had made no request to US President Donald Trump to mediate on the Kashmir issue. India has maintained that all outstanding issues with Pakistan could be discussed only bilaterally.
Trump was referring to his last week’s meeting with Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, wherein he offered to help to resolve the Kashmir issue. Pakistan has welcomed his statement. However, his offer was strongly rejected by India.
“It’s really up to PM Modi (to accept the offer of mediation),” Trump told reporters responding to a question on India not accepting his offer of mediation on Kashmir.
“I think they are fantastic people – Imran Khan and Narendra Modi — I mean. I would imagine they could get along very well, but if they wanted somebody to intervene, to help them and I spoke with Pakistan about that and I spoke frankly in (sic) India about it,” Trump said.
Last week, President Trump had claimed that PM Modi had asked him to play the role of a mediator on Kashmir.
Trump said, “he had received a request to do so from PM Modi during a recent meeting with him.”
“If I can help, I would love to be a mediator. If I can do anything to help, let me know,” Trump had said.
India quickly denied the claim and made it clear that the Kashmir issue was never discussed between PM Modi and Donald Trump.
