Trump tells Imran: PM Modi asked me to help with ‘disputed’ Kashmir region, happy to do it

Washington: US President Donald Trump Monday offered to mediate in solving the Kashmir issue between India and Pakistan during his meeting with Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan.
Trump said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked him to help ease tensions between the two neighbouring countries on the “disputed” Kashmir region and that he would love to be a mediator, Reuters reported. The Ministry of External Affairs has repeatedly maintained its stand that Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India and that it is a matter strictly internal to India.
In March this year, responding to a query by a journalist, MEA Spokesperson Ravish Kumar had said: “As regards the resolutions on Jammu and Kashmir, our stand is consistent and well known. We reaffirm that Jammu & Kashmir is an integral part of India and is a matter strictly internal to India.”
In Khan’s first meeting with the US president, Trump also said the United States is working with Islamabad to find a way out of the war in Afghanistan.
Trump also held out the possibility of restoring US aid to Pakistan, depending upon what is worked out, and offered assistance to Islamabad in trying to ease strained ties with India.
Khan told Trump there was only one solution for Afghanistan and that a peace deal with the Taliban was closer than it had ever been. He said he hoped in the coming days to be able to urge the Taliban to continue the talks.
Khan, who was accompanied by Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Lt Gen Faiz Hameed and Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi among others, was greeted by Trump upon his arrival at the White House.
“The Prime Minister of Pakistan is here to showcase his vision of a ‘Naya Pakistan’ and to start a new era of bilateral relations. We have come with a narrative of peace and prosperity in the region,” Qureshi tweeted soon after arriving at the White House.