Trump reiterates offer to mediate Kashmir dispute

February 25, 2020

NEW DELHI: US President Donald Trump on Tuesday reiterated his offer to mediate between India and Pakistan to resolve tensions, saying that the two countries had been working on Kashmir for a long time. 

Speaking to media, the US president said that he had good relations with Prime Minister Imran and once again, saying that he and Modi had “talked a lot about Pakistan”. 

“I have a very good relationship with Prime Minister Khan,” he said, stating that his relationship with “both gentlemen [Modi and Imran Khan] is very good”.

He said that “there has been difficulty in Pakistan and we’re seeing what we can do about it”. “Anything I can do to mediate, and to help I would. They’re working on Kashmir. Kashmir has been a thorn in a lot of people’s sides for a long time and there are two sides to every story, but they have been working on that for a long time” he said. 

The US president stated that “Modi will take care of it


,” saying that the Indian prime minister had the issue foremost on his mind.

In response to a question, Trump said that he discussed the issue of religious freedom in India, saying that he got a very “powerful answer” from the Indian prime minister. 

“We talked about religious liberty for a long time, in front of a lot of people and I had a very, very powerful answer from him [Modi],” he said. 

When asked about India’s controversial citizenship law, Trump said he did not want to comment on it. “I want to leave that to India and hopefully they will make the right decision for the people,” he said. 

“You have been criticised for your policies against Muslims, so were you in a position to talk about the current Indian polices,” asked a reporter. At this, the US president replied: “I won the travel ban, and we use it where we think it is necessary, and not based on a religion. We won it in the Supreme Court and we bar those people from travelling to our country who might hurt our citizens,” he said. 

In response to a question, the US president said that the US was being charged a lot of tariff by the Indian government. He said that he knew that while the previous administration was not aware. “We’re being charged large amounts of tariffs. Can’t do that, you can’t do that,” he said. 

Trump said that he was in India to make a deal and it was going to happen. “They {Indian government] want to do that, they will do that. I did a deal with China when everybody said I could not do a deal with China,” he added.  Monitoring Desk