×
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

India's clear message to Trump: No role for third party on Kashmir issue

Last Updated 23 January 2020, 22:24 IST

A day after Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan called for interventions by the United States and United Nations to avert a war between his country and India, New Delhi reiterated its position that no third party had any role in resolving the dispute between the two nuclear-armed neighbours in South Asia.

“If Pakistan is indeed serious for a peaceful and normal relationship with India as he (Imran Khan) claims, the onus is on his government to create a conducive atmosphere,” Raveesh Kumar, spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, said in New Delhi. “They have to take credible, irreversible and verifiable action against terror groups operating from its soil rather than making misleading and alarmist statements to divert the attention of international community,” he told journalists in New Delhi on Thursday.

Kumar also reiterated New Delhi's position in response to the latest statement made by United States President Donald Trump expressing willingness to help India and Pakistan settle the dispute over Kashmir.

“Our position on the Kashmir issue has been clear and consistent. Let me once again reiterate that there is no role for any third party in this matter. If at all there are any bilateral issues between India and Pakistan to be discussed, it should be done bilaterally under the provisions of Simla Agreement and the Lahore Declaration,” said the MEA spokesperson.

The US President has been repeatedly indicating over the past few months his willingness to intervene in the dispute over Kashmir. New Delhi strongly rejected his offers in the past – underlining that all outstanding issues between India and Pakistan must be resolved through bilateral talks between the two nations without any intervention by any third party.

Trump, however, reiterated his offer just before he had a meeting with Khan on the sideline of the World Economic Forum at Davos in Switzerland late on Tuesday.

Khan on Wednesday said in Davos that he had come across “a brick wall” when he had reached out to his Indian counterpart Prime Minister Narendra Modi after assuming office in 2018. He said that India-Pakistan ties had deteriorated after India had carried out air strike at Balakot in Pakistan targeting a Jaish-e-Mohammad training camp on February 26 – in response to the killing of over 40 paramilitary soldiers at Pulwama in Jammu and Kashmir on February 14.

But “things went from bad to worse” when India on August 5 last year moved to strip Jammu and Kashmir of its special status and reorganized the state into two Union Territories. “I just think that the path which India is going [on] is a disaster for India,” said Khan.

“We are hardly surprised by the content and tone of his remarks. They are not only factually inaccurate and contradictory, but also demonstrate a growing sense of frustration,” the MEA spokesperson said in New Delhi.

“Pakistan has to realise that the global community has seen through this double-standard of playing the victim card in their fight against terror on the one hand, and supporting terror groups targeting India and other countries on the other,” he added.

ADVERTISEMENT
(Published 23 January 2020, 14:10 IST)

Follow us on

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT