'Modi might not have sought US mediation in Kashmir'

Former ambassador Anil Trigunayat is of the opinion that President Trump must have misread whatever Modi has said because the PM might not have sought his mediation on Kashmir issue.

New Delhi: Diplomatic circles in India went hysterical minutes after US President Donald Trump stirred a massive controversy claiming that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had asked for his intervention on the Kashmir issue.

Responding to a media query in Washington DC, Trump said that it was up to India and Pakistan to resolve the Kashmir dispute. But he is ready to intervene if both India and Pakistan wanted him to help in resolving the decades-old issue.

Talking exclusively to ETV Bharat, former ambassador Anil Trigunayat said, "President Trump must have misread whatever PM Modi has said. And, I have no hesitation in saying that PM Modi would have never asked for his mediation."

"Very often some of the world leaders tend to forget or make a differentiation between our need to impress upon Pakistan to contain state sponsor terrorism. And, when it is in the context of Kashmir they also think that we are asking them to talk on this issue as well," asserted Trigunayat, who served as an Indian diplomat in the Washington and several other countries.

On External Affairs Minister Dr Jaishankar making India's stand clear to the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo today during his bilateral engagement on the sidelines of the ASEAN Foreign Ministers' meet, the former diplomat said that this has been India's consistent position in Simla Accord which was reiterated in the Lahore Declaration. And, every time it has been accepted by Pakistan that all the issues related to Kashmir will be resolved bilaterally.