United States President Donald Trump raised the issue of mediation between India and Pakistan on Kashmir again on Thursday. However, Indian Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar said today that he has communicated to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that any discussion on Kashmir will be bilateral and only with Pakistan.
The Indian foreign minister met with his US counterpart in Bangkok, where he is currently visiting to attend a number of conferences, including the ASEAN-India Ministerial Meeting, the 9th East Asia Summit Foreign Ministers' Meeting, the 26th ASEAN Regional Forum and the 10th Mekong Ganga Cooperation Ministerial Meeting.
Jaishankar and Pompeo held discussions on wide-ranging topics, and the Indian minister subsequently tweeted that he had conveyed India’s stand on Kashmir to the US Secretary of State.
Trump had raised the issue of mediation with reporters on Thursday saying he was ready to assist if the two countries wanted his help in resolving the decades-old Kashmir issue.
"It's really up to Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi (to accept the offer of mediation)," said Trump. "I think they are fantastic people (Imran) Khan and Modi… 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 India about it."
Trump had stunned India last week when in a joint media conference with Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, he had said that PM Modi had sought his intervention in the Kashmir issue during their bilateral meeting in Japan in June on the sidelines of the G-20 Summit.
India were quick to deny this and said that Kashmir was never discussed by Modi and Trump.
