New Delhi: After US President Donald Trump on Monday claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked him to mediate between India and Pakistan on the Kashmir issue, India maintained that the Kashmir issue is a bilateral one and no third party has any role.
MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar denied the claim with a post on social media site Twitter. “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.
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...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 " class="align-text-top noRightClick twitterSection" data="
">...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...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
US President made the statement during his meeting with Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan at the White House for the first time.
Claiming that PM Modi had sought his help in the matter, Trump also stated 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.
“I was with Prime Minister 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 said at the joint press briefing with Imran Khan.
Khan welcomed Trump's remarks and said that any engagement with Pakistan would require an end to cross border terrorism. The Shimla Agreement and the Lahore Declaration provide the basis to resolve all issues between India and Pakistan bilaterally.
"If the US agrees, prayers of more than a billion people will be with him," Khan added.
Trump and Modi met last month on the sidelines of G20 Summit in Osaka, Japan. It was earlier reported that the two focused on trade; Iran and 5G during that bilateral meet.
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.
