A senior adviser of United States President Donald Trump on Tuesday said Trump “does not make things up” when asked if his claim that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had requested him to mediate in the Kashmir dispute was false, C-Span reported.
“The president does not make anything up,” Trump’s Chief Economic Adviser Larry Kudlow said at the White House. “That is a very rude question in my opinion. I am going to stay out of that...It is for Mr [John] Bolton, [Mike] Pompeo and the president, so I am not going to comment on that.”
On Monday, while speaking to reporters after meeting Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan in the White House, Trump had said: “I was with Prime Minister Modi two weeks ago and we talked about this subject and he actually said, ‘Would you like to be a mediator or arbitrator?’ I said: ‘Where?’ He said: ‘Kashmir’. Because this has been going on for many many years. I was surprised how long it has been going on.”
The Ministry of External Affairs refuted Trump’s claims late on Monday. “It has been India’s consistent position that all outstanding issues with Pakistan are discussed only bilaterally,” MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said hours after the US president’s remarks. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar categorically denied Trump’s claim in Parliament on Tuesday.
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