Wed 22 January 2020:
Pakistan has sought US help in resolving Kashmir issue but India has baulked at the idea of mediation.
US President Donald Trump has reiterated an offer to help mediate between India and Pakistan over the disputed territory of Kashmir, a move welcomed by Pakistan but which its neighbour has rejected in the past.
Trump made the offer while speaking to the press alongside Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan ahead of a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in the Swiss town of Davos on Tuesday.
“We are talking about Kashmir and the relation to what is going on with Pakistan and India,” said President Trump. “And if we can help, we certainly will be helping. We have been watching that and following it very, very closely.”
Pakistan and India have fought two of their three wars since gaining independence from Britain in 1947 over the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, which both claim in full but administer separate parts of.
Tensions have remained high since India passed a constitutional amendment in August last year, revoking a special status and autonomy for Indian-administered Kashmir and absorbing it into the country’s governance mainstream.
Earlier in 2019, the two countries also fought a limited military conflict over Kashmir, conducting air strikes on each other’s territory.
India against mediation
Trump had offered to mediate at that time and later, an offer that India’s foreign ministry has routinely rejected.
Analysts say that while the offer may not lead to any actual mediation, the fact that Trump brought up Kashmir at all is significant.
“India has been allergic to the mention of Kashmir, especially by the US, and has reacted negatively in the past whenever President Rump has raised the Kashmir issue,” said Hassan Akbar, an Islamabad-based foreign policy analyst.
“It is important President Trump himself brought the issue of Kashmir up in this press interaction. That shows the centrality of the issue to the South Asian region, and within the mind space of President Trump and US policy circles.”
The comments may not, however, be seen with the same positivity in New Delhi.
“Government of India has repeatedly in the past clarified that it has a bilateral agreement with Pakistan and if there are any issues, they will be resolved bilaterally,” Lalit Mansingh, former Foreign Secretary of India, told Al Jazeera.
“Despite that Trump keeps repeating it whenever he holds any discussions with Imran Khan. Even Trump has accepted in the past that it is an internal matter of India and Pakistan.”
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA NEWS
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