India on Monday reiterated that the Kashmir dispute was a bilateral matter, rejecting Turkey’s offer to mediate talks between New Delhi and Islamabad, reported PTI. Spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs Gopal Baglay upheld the Shimla Agreement between the countries and said they had conveyed India’s position to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

“The entire state of Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India...It was also conveyed to him [Erdogan] that Kashmir is an issue related to terror, and there could be no justification for terror,” Baglay said.

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Turkey has supported Islamabad’s position on Kashmir at different forums. On Sunday, Erdogan has said that the India-Pakistan dispute on Jammu and Kashmir could be resolved through “multilateral talks” involving his country’s participation. “We should not allow more casualties to occur, and by strengthening multilateral dialogue – we can be involved – I think we have to seek out ways to settle this question once and for all, which will benefit both countries,” he had said in an interview.

Earlier on Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had told Erdogan that India has been on the receiving end of state-sponsored militancy for four decades. Both leaders agreed that nothing can validate militancy and vowed to combat it. “The world needs to stand and act against those that conceive and create, support and sustain, shelter and spread these instruments and ideologies of violence,” Modi had told Erdogan.

Unlike India, Pakistan, which has been a long-standing ally of Turkey, has welcomed Erdogan’s offer to mediate talks. “The Turkish president has called for a multilateral approach to settle the Jammu and Kashmir dispute, while calling for an immediate end to the bloodshed Kashmir, which we welcome,” Pakistan’s Foreign Office said in a statement, according to Samaa TV.