New Delhi: Amid chaos Tuesday in the Parliament over US President Donald Trump’s claim that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had asked him to ‘mediate’ on Kashmir, Foreign Minister S Jaishankar said he was ‘categorically assuring the house’ that no such request had been made by Modi to the American president.
“I would like to put it on record in the House (Rajya Sabha) that no such request (on Kashmir) was made by the Prime Minister to the president of the United States. All issues with Pakistan has and will remain bilateral between India and Pakistan,” Foreign Minister Jaishankar said in a statement in both houses.
“I would like to reiterate that all engagements with Pakistan will remain only bilateral. I would also like to reiterate that bilateral dialogue is only possible when Pakistan ends cross-border terrorism,” Jaishankar added amid protests from the opposition benches.
Not appeased by the Minister’s clarification, opposition parties aggressively demanded that Modi clarify on Trump’s comments in Parliament and said they would not stop protesting until he did so.
The opposition parties walked out in both the Lok Sabha and in the Rajya Sabha, unrelenting protests forced more than one adjournment.
India has strongly rejected Trump’s claim and even the US State Department, in apparent damage control, said while Kashmir is a bilateral issue, ‘the Trump administration welcomes Pakistan and India sitting down and the United States stands ready to assist’.
Earlier Monday, the US president offered to be the ‘mediator’ between India and Pakistan on the Kashmir issue as he met Prime Minister Imran Khan at the White House in Washington where the two leaders discussed a host of issues, including the Afghan peace process.
However, then and there only the Indian government denied President Trump’s astonishing claim that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had asked him to mediate.
“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,” Ministry of External Affairs spokesman Raveesh Kumar tweeted.
Trump, who is known to make inaccurate statements, claimed that Prime Minister Modi asked him to mediate on the Kashmir issue. “If I can help, I would love to be a mediator. If I can do anything to help, let me know,” Trump said in response to a question.
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.
Trump claimed that Modi and he discussed the issue of Kashmir in Osaka, Japan on the sidelines of the G-20 Summit last month, where the Indian Prime Minister made an offer of a third-party arbitration on Kashmir.
“I was with Prime Minister Modi two weeks ago and we talked about this subject (Kashmir). And he actually said, ‘would you like to be a mediator or arbitrator?’ I said, ‘where?’ (Modi said) ‘Kashmir’,’ Trump said.
Agencies