Senior US diplomat Alice Wells on Wednesday rubbished claims that New Delhi reached out to Washington over its move to strip Indian-held Kashmir (IHK) of its special status.
“Contrary to press reporting, the Indian government did not consult or inform the US government before moving to revoke IOK’s special constitutional status,” said a statement released by the US Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs (SCA), attributing the senior diplomat.
Sources inside the Indian government had told The Print that External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had apprised his US counterpart Mike Pompeo of their plan on Kashmir. Jaishankar’s meeting with the US secretary of state came on the sidelines of the 9th East Asia Summit Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Bangkok on August 1.
According to the report, Jaishankar had also reiterated to Pompeo that the US does not need to mediate on the Kashmir dispute and that any discussion on the issue, ‘if at all warranted’, will only be with Pakistan unilaterally.
The publication had claimed that the Ministry of External Affairs had also taken the UK, China, France and Russia into confidence over the move. Similarly, envoys of all 15 members of the United Nations Security Council were also briefed, it was reported.
