Trump went on to claim that PM Narendra Modi had asked him to ‘help with disputed Kashmir region’ and the POTUS added that he would ‘love to be a mediator’.
US President Donald Trump on Monday offered to mediate between India and Pakistan on the Kashmir issue as he met Prime Minister Imran Khan at the White House for the first time.
Trump said that he is ready to help, if the two countries ask.
"If I can help, I would love to be a mediator," Trump said in his opening remarks at the Oval Office during his meeting with Khan.
The MEA said in a statement that PM Modi made no such request. Raveesh Kumar wrote: ““We have seen @POTUS's remarks to the press that he is ready to mediate, if requested by India & Pakistan, on Kashmir issue. No such request has been made by PM @narendramodi to US President. 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.”
...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.2/2
— Raveesh Kumar (@MEAIndia) July 22, 2019
Trump says that he was with PM Modi two weeks ago who asked him to be a 'mediator or arbitrator for Kashmir'.
Interestingly, the White House Press Release of the meeting doesn't even mention Kashmir
He said: "This has been going on for many years. If I can help, I would love to be a mediator or arbitrator."
He adds: "I've heard so much about Kashmir, such a beautiful name. Supposed to be such a beautiful part of the world. Right now there are just bombs all over the place. They say everywhere you go you have bombs."
Khan welcomed Trump's remarks and said if the US agrees, prayers of more than a billion people will be with him.
PM Modi last met US President Trump at the G-20 summit in Osaka.
India maintains that the Kashmir issue is a bilateral one and no third party has any role.
#WATCH Washington DC: Pakistan PM Imran Khan and US President Donald Trump reply to journalists when asked on Kashmir. pic.twitter.com/UM51rbsIYF
— ANI (@ANI) July 22, 2019
India has not been engaging with Pakistan since an attack on the Air Force base at Pathankot in January of 2016 by Pakistan-based terrorists, maintaining that talks and terror cannot go together.
Khan was accompanied by Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Lt Gen Faiz Hameed and Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi among others.
Early this year, tensions flared up between India and Pakistan after a suicide bomber of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Muhammed (JeM) killed 40 CRPF personnel in Kashmir's Pulwama district.
Amid mounting outrage, the Indian Air Force carried out a counter-terror operation, hitting the biggest JeM training camp in Balakot, deep inside Pakistan on February 26.
The next day, Pakistan Air Force retaliated and downed a MiG-21 in an aerial combat and captured Indian pilot, who was handed over to India on March 1.
1. Pak helping US in Afghan peace process
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President Donald Trump on Monday said that Pakistan was helping the US in the Afghan peace process as he met Prime Minister Imran Khan at the White House for the first time in a meeting, which Islamabad hopes would reset the strained bilateral ties.
Khan, who was accompanied by Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Lt Gen Faiz Hameed and Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi among others, was greeted by Trump upon his arrival at the White House.
In his opening remarks, President Trump noted that the US is working with Pakistan to withdraw from Afghanistan, and does not want the US to be policeman in the region.
President Trump said that Pakistan was helping the US in the Afghanistan peace process. "I don't think Pakistan respected the United States" in the past, Trump said, but "they are helping us a lot now." The Trump administration has intensified its efforts to seek a negotiated settlement of America's longest war in Afghanistan where the US has lost over 2,400 soldiers since late 2001, when it invaded the country after the 9/11 terror attacks.
2. Talks between US and Afghan Taliban enter decisive phase
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Khan's visit comes at a time when talks between the US and Afghan Taliban are thought to have entered a decisive phase. Pakistan's efforts have been appreciated for facilitating peace talks with the Taliban.
"The Prime Minister of Pakistan is here to showcase his vision of a 'Naya Pakistan' and to start a new era of bilateral relations. We have come with a narrative of peace and prosperity in the region," Qureshi tweeted soon after arriving at the White House.
3. Ties between Pak and US 'strained'
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Ties between the US and Pakistan strained after Trump, while announcing his Afghanistan and South Asia policy in August 2017, hit out at Pakistan for providing safe havens to "agents of chaos" that kill Americans in Afghanistan and warned Islamabad that it has "much to lose" by harbouring terrorists.
During the meeting, the American leadership is likely to press Khan to take "decisive and irreversible" actions against terrorist and militant groups operating from Pakistani soil and facilitate peace talks with the Taliban.
