K-talk only with Pak, US snubbed

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 2

India has once again conveyed to the US that third party mediation on Kashmir is unacceptable.

After a meeting with his US counterpart Mike Pompeo today in Bangkok, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar tweeted that any discussion on Kashmir, if “at all warranted, will only be with Pakistan and only bilaterally”.

Jaishankar was responding to US President Donald Trump’s observation yesterday that “it’s really up to Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi to accept his offer of mediation on Kashmir”.

“Have they accepted the offer or not?” he asked about India’s rejection of his mediation offer. “I think they are fantastic people — (Pakistan PM Imran) Khan and Modi — I mean. I would imagine they could get along very well, but if they wanted somebody to intervene, to help them. And I spoke with Pakistan about that and I spoke frankly to India about it,” he had added.

Jaishankar’s reiteration to Pompeo followed his categorical assertion in Parliament last week that there was no question of any mediation on the Kashmir issue, “which is purely a bilateral issue between India and Pakistan”.

Jaishankar met Pompeo on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit in Bangkok and this was the first formal interaction between the two after Trump’s comments on mediation when he hosted Imran Khan last month.