Trump’s Kashmir Mediation Claim: No Such Request Made by PM Modi, EAM ‘Categorically Assures’ in Parliament

"I would like to categorically assure the House that no such request has been made by PM Modi," Jaishankar said in the Rajya Sabha.

New Delhi: Hours after the US President Donald Trump offered to mediate in the Kashmir issue on claims that Narendra Modi had sought his arbitration efforts, External Affairs of Minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday assured in the Rajya Sabha that no such request was made by the Prime Minister.

“I would like to categorically assure the House that no such request has been made by PM Modi,” Jaishankar said in the upper House.

On Monday, President Trump claimed during a press conference with visiting Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan that Prime Minister Modi had asked him to mediate in the dispute with Pakistan.

India immediately rejected Trump’s assertion. “No such request has been made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the US President,” External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted.

In his euphoria with the Pakistan Prime Minister offering to help resolve the Afghanistan war, Trump positioned himself as a mediator in the Kashmir dispute.

Speaking to reporters before his meeting in the White House with Khan, Trump asserted that during his meeting with Modi in Osaka, “We talked about the subject, (and) he actually said, ‘Would you like to mediate, mediate or arbitrate?’ I said, ‘Where,?’ (and he said) ‘Kashmir’.”

Trump made the claim about Modi while answering a question from a reporter about what he would do to help resolve the Kashmir issue.

Earlier in the day, influential Democratic Congressman issued an apology to India’s US envoy Harsh Shringla over Trump’s  Kashmir blooper. “I just apologised to Indian Ambassador Harsh Shringla for Trump’s amateurish and embarrassing mistake,” Congressman Brad Sherman tweeted.

Backing India, Sherman, who has been closely following the development in South Asia for past few decades, stated, “Everyone who knows anything about foreign policy in South Asia knows that India consistently opposes third-party mediation e Kashmir. Everyone knows PM Modi would never suggest such a thing (sic).”

“Trump’s statement is amateurish and delusional and embarrassing,” he added.

(With IANS inputs)