The State Department now appears to stand behind US President Donald Trump’s claim that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had asked him to mediate the Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan, moving away from a Department official’s clarification that it considered it a bilateral issue.
Asked by a reporter if there has been any change in USpolicy on Kashmir, Department Spokesperson Morgan Ortagus said in Washington onThursday, “I don’t have anything to say beyond the President’s statement.”
This would be a step back from an attempt by Alice G Wells,the acting Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, toease tensions with India over Trump’s claim, which India has denied. Soon afterTrump made the claim before reporters as he and visiting Pakistan PrimeMinister Imran Khan were preparing to meet at the White House on Monday, Wellstried to clarify Washington’s position affirming that Kashmir was a bilateralmatter, conforming to India’s stand.
She tweeted under her initials, AGW, on her bureau’s twitteraccount, “While Kashmir is a bilateral issue for both parties to discuss, theTrump administration welcomes #Pakistan and #India sitting down and the UnitedStates stands ready to assist.”
Ortagus moves the Department position back to Trump’salthough she does not explicitly call it a change in the policy.
Trump had said, “I was with Prime Minister Modi two weeksago, and we talked about this subject. And he actually said, ‘Would you like tobe a mediator or arbitrator?’ I said, ‘Where?’ He said, ‘Kashmir.’”Foreign Minister S Jaishankar has denied in Parliament that Modi had made anysuch request when he met Trump in Osaka on the sidelines of the G-20 summit inJapan.He said on Tuesday, “I assure the House categorically that no suchrequest has been made by the Prime Minister to the US President. It has beenIndia’s consistent position that all outstanding issues with Pakistan arediscussed only bilaterally. Any engagement with Pakistan would require an endto cross-border terrorism.” The episode illustrates the frequent foreign –domestic – policy confusions brought on by a mercurial president and efforts byofficials to salvage situation while working at cross purposes. Ortagussidestepped another question by reporter asking how US-Pakistan andIndia-Pakistan relations would go on after Khan’s admission on Tuesday thatthere 30,000 to 40,000 militants who had fought in Kashmir and Afghanistan werein Pakistan.