Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said that India is neither ready to hold talks bilaterally with Pakistan on Kashmir dispute nor does it accept third party mediation.
Trump Offers To Mediate On Kashmir Dispute and Repair India and Pakistan Relations
Speaking to the media in Islamabad, Qureshi said, “Kashmir is a disputed territory and any demographic changes in Jammu and Kashmir will not be acceptable to Pakistan as well as Kashmiri people.”
Earlier, Donald Trump had claimed that Indian PM Narendra Modi had requested him to mediate in the Kashmir dispute, a claim outrightly rejected by New Delhi. Later, an adviser to Donald Trump has defended the statements of US President over the Kashmir intervention remarks.
“He [Donald Trump] doesn’t make anything up……that’s a very rude question to ask,” Chief Economic Adviser Larry Kudlow told reporters at the White House when a journalist following up on the president’s remarks asked if it was made up.
“I was with Modi two weeks ago and we talked about this subject and he actually said ‘Would you like to be a mediator or arbitrator’, I said ‘Where’, He said ‘Kashmir’. Because this has been going on for many, many years… I think they would like to see it resolved and you [Imran Khan] would like to see it resolved. If I can help, I would love to be a mediator,” Trump had said.
The “prayers of over a billion people will be with you if you can mediate and resolve the situation,” PM Imran responded. Hours after his remarks, India’s Ministry of External Affairs released a statement that Modi had not made any such request.
New Delhi, denied the claim, with the Ministry of External Affairs releasing a statement in this regard within half an hour.
“We have seen [Donald Trump’s] remarks to the press that he is ready to mediate if requested by India and Pakistan, on Kashmir issue. No such request has been made by Narendra Modi to US President,” said India’s Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar.
“It has been India’s consistent position that all outstanding issues with Pakistan are discussed only bilaterally.”
