US President Donald Trump said on Monday that India and Pakistan can handle their dispute over Kashmir on their own, but he is there should they need him.
The US president has previously offered to mediate between India and Pakistan on Indian-held Kashmir. Trump discussed the issue on the sidelines of a G7 summit in France with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who withdrew autonomy for the state of Jammu and Kashmir on August 5.
“We spoke last night about Kashmir, the prime minister really feels he has it under control,” he told reporters. “They speak with Pakistan and I’m sure that they will be able to do something that will be very good,” he said.
Trump infuriated the Indian government last month when he said Modi had asked him to mediate in the dispute, drawing an immediate denial from New Delhi.
Sitting alongside Trump, Modi said the issues over Kashmir were bilateral, between India and Pakistan. “All issues between India & Pakistan are bilateral in nature, that is why we don’t bother any other country regarding them,” Modi said, according to ANI. He said India and Pakistan were together before 1947 and that he was “confident that we can discuss our problems and solve them, together”.
The Indian prime minister also said he has told Prime Minister Imran Khan that they should work together for the welfare of their two countries. Modi’s abrupt decision this month to cancel the mainly Muslim region’s autonomous status triggered weeks of protests, mainly in the district of Soura, which has emerged as the center of discontent. It has also drawn deep anger in Pakistan, which said last week it would take the case to the International Court of Justice.
A communications blackout and heavy restrictions on movement imposed by the Indian authorities from the eve of New Delhi’s decision to revoke Article 370 of its constitution entered their 22nd day on Monday. However, the turning of the restive region into a fortress of barricades and barbed wire has not prevented protests and clashes with security forces taking place. Police on Monday said stone-throwing protestors killed a truck driver in the occupied valley.
India says no civilian has died from police action since August 5. But residents have said three people have been killed, including a young mother who choked after police fired tear-gas canisters into her home. Multiple hospital sources said at least 100 people have been hurt during the lockdown, some with firearm injuries. Kashmir has been the starting point for two of the three wars India and Pakistan have fought since the two states were created out of British-ruled India following World War Two. In February this year, following an attack on a police convoy in Indian-held Kashmir, the two countries came close to war with jets fighting a dogfight in the skies over Kashmir before tensions eased.
