Mumbai: US President Donald Trump has yet again offered to become a mediator between India and Pakistan to help in resolving this decades-old Kashmir issue.
Speaking with reporters here he said,“I think they are fantastic people Khan and 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.”
Speaking to reporters while responding to a question on India not accepting his offer of mediation on Kashmir, the US president said,” It’s really up to Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi (to accept the offer of mediation).”
“Have they accepted the offer or not?”, Trump sought clarification when asked about India’s rejection of his mediation offer. On being asked how would he “want to resolve the Kashmir issue,” Trump said, “If I can if they wanted me to, I would certainly intervene.”
Earlier, Trump claimed that PM Narendra Modi asked for mediation in Kashmir dispute during their bilateral meeting in Japan in June on the sidelines of the G-20 Summit.
The US president had said,” I was with Prime Minister Modi two weeks ago, and we talked about the subject. And he actually said, ‘would you like to be a mediator or arbitrator’, and I said ‘where?’, and he said ‘Kashmir’, because this has been going on for many, many years. I was surprised by how long it has been going on,” to which Imran Khan interjected to say, ’70 years’.
After which the Indian government had strongly denied president Trump’s astonishing claim.
Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said that “No such request has been made by PM Modi.”
“It has been India’s consistent position that all outstanding issues with Pakistan are discussed only bilaterally. Any engagement with Pakistan would require an end to cross border terrorism. The Shimla Agreement & the Lahore Declaration provide the basis to resolve all issues between India & Pakistan bilaterally,” he added.
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