Kashmir is a bilateral issue, Trump tells Modi

PARIS: United States President Donald trump on Monday said that occupied Kashmir was a bilateral issue between Pakistan and India which needed a peaceful resolution, ARY News reported.

This he said during a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Paris on the sideline of G7 summit.

While talking to journalists following the meeting, Trump said that he discussed Kashmir issue with the Indian prime minister and hoped that Islamabad and New Delhi would resolve the issue peacefully.

He said that Pakistan and India could handle their dispute over occupied Kashmir on their own, but he was there should they need him.

“We spoke last night about Kashmir, the prime minister really feels he has it under control. They speak with Pakistan and I am sure that they will be able to do something that will be very good,” Trump added.

Modi, who till now maintained that Kashmir is India’s internal matter, admitted before Trump and media that all issues between New Delhi and Islamabad were “bilateral in nature”.

Earlier on August 2, the United States President Donald Trump had gain offered to play a role of mediator between Pakistan and India on the Kashmir dispute.

Answering a reporter’s question about his previous comments related to mediating on Kashmir issue, Trump had said: “If they wanted somebody to intervene or to help them — and I spoke with Pakistan about that, and I spoke, frankly, to India about it. But that’s been going on, that battle, for a long time.”