United States President Donald Trump on Friday told Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan that it was important for New Delhi and Islamabad to reduce tensions through bilateral dialogue on the Kashmir dispute, the White House said. Last month, Trump had offered to mediate but India had junked the idea, calling it a bilateral matter.
Khan had a phone conversation with Trump on Friday before a closed-door meeting of the United Nations Security Council on the matter. White House Deputy Press Secretary Hogan Gidley said Trump spoke with Khan to discuss regional developments and to follow up on the Pakistani leader’s visit to Washington in July, PTI reported.
During the meeting last month, Trump had told Imran Khan that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had asked him to mediate in the Kashmir dispute – a claim denied by New Delhi.
Last week, India rescinded the special status granted to Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 of Constitution, which has angered the neighbouring country. Pakistan wrote to the United Nations Security Council, asking for an emergency meeting to discuss India’s “illegal” actions. China, a permanent member of the council, backed Pakistan’s request and urged the Security Council to meet behind closed doors to discuss the matter.
After the meeting on Friday, India’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations Syed Akbaruddin said the abrogation of Article 370 of its Constitution was entirely its internal matter and that Pakistan must “stop terror to start talks”. The meeting, the first in over 50 years to discuss Kashmir, ended without any outcome or statement from the council.
Meanwhile, Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said in Islamabad that ahead of the Security Council meeting, Khan had conveyed his concern to Trump on the developments in Kashmir and “the threat they pose to regional peace”, Radio Pakistan reported.
Pakistan contacted four of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and was “also trying to contact French President [Emmanuel Macron] so that his country understands our position”, Qureshi said.
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