Donald Trump Once again Offers to ‘Mediate’ between India and Pakistan over Kashmir Issue

On the sidelines of the World Economic Forum, the US President Donald Trump has once again repeated his offer to ‘help’ on the Kashmir issue, with Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan by his side. 

Inspite of a series of refusals from India, it was US President Donald Trump’s fourth such offer since August last year, when the government of India scrapped the special status to Jammu and Kashmir. In few weeks the US President is expected to visit India, which would be his first visit to the country.

Ahead of their talks, in the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland, US President Donald Trump with Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan by his side appeared before the media, where President Trump said, “We are talking about Kashmir issue and with relation to what is going on with Pakistan and India. If we can ‘help’ on the issue, we certainly will be helping. We have been watching it and following it very, very closely”.

Followed by Imran Khan who said, “There are issues that we want to talk about, like Afghanistan. Fortunately, we are on the same page now, India, of course, it is a big issue. We always hope that the US will play its part in resolving the issue that because no other country can”.

When asked by Media to US President Donald Trump whether he would visit Pakistan, before heading towards India, President Trump replied, “We are visiting right now, so we won’t really have to. But I wanted to say hello from a relationship standpoint, as we have had a great relationship”. 

In September last year US President Donald Trump had made his last offer of mediation, when the top leaders of the world had gathered in the United States for the United Nations General Assembly. At the time, President Trump had said he was “ready, willing and able to mediate if both Khan and Prime Minister Narendra Modi wanted him to”.

However, following pushback by India, Donald Trump had withdrawn his comment and said Kashmir is a bilateral issue for India and Pakistan to resolve. 

India has maintained that the Kashmir issue is an internal matter of the country and has stuck to its stand that it can be solved only through bilateral talks, a position the US has also agreed recently, when China made a third attempt to take up the issue of Jammu and Kashmir at a meeting of the UN Security Council.