External Affairs Minister Subramaniam Jaishankar affirmed India’s long term policy of no outside intervention in the Indo-Pak Kashmir conflict to his US counterpart, US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo. Jaishankar raised this topic after last day comment of US President Donald Trump ready to play a role of mediator between India and Pakistan. He said the issue to have stretched for way too long and he would be more than happy to play a peacemaker.
S. Jaishankar is currently in Thailand to attend the ministerial meetings of the regional forum of ASEAN. After discussing all the necessary topics with Mike Pompeo, he came out in the public and stated, “I have conveyed to the American counterpart, US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo this morning in clear terms that any discussion on Kashmir, if at all warranted, will only be with Pakistan and only bilaterally.”
This whole saga started when Trump upon his meeting with Pakistan Prez Imran Khan stated that Indian PM, Narendra Modi had asked for his help by mediating between India and Pakistan on the Kashmir Conflict. Hearing about this the Opposition party in India asked the Indian PM to disclose the talks he had with Trump in their last meeting. At that time, Jaishankar had to produce a statement in the Parliament that categorically denied Mr. Modi holding any sort of talks regarding this topic. “I hope, given my very specific and categorical responses, that there is no confusion in the mind of anybody on this matter,” he said.
It was not sure why Trump came up with such comments on a matter of utmost delicacy. The US informed to the Indian government that neither the US Department of State nor the White House had any records of Trump’s claims.
