PM tells Trump: J&K bilateral issue, no role for 3rd country

New Delhi/Biarritz: Speaking loud and clear in the presence of US President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the G-7 summit in Biarritz, France, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Monday that the issues between India and Pakistan were bilateral in nature and he “doesn’t want to trouble any third country” on this, thereby categorically rejecting any case for third-party mediation by the United States or any other country. In what is seen as a major diplomatic win for India, President Trump, in an apparent climbdown from his earlier position when he had offered to mediate, also indicated he felt the two neighbouring countries could resolve their problems. President Trump said he and Mr Modi spoke about Kashmir “at great length” on Sunday night and he felt both neighbours can resolve the issue on their own. The US President apparently raised the Kashmir issue with Mr Modi and said Mr Modi felt he had “the situation under control”. Speaking on India- Pakistan ties, Mr Modi said both countries were one before 1947 and that they canresolve issues bilaterally through discussions, adding that both should instead combat poverty and other ills together.

India had earlier this month bifurcated J&K state into two Union territories and revoked Article 370 that had granted a special status to J&K. The 40 minute-long bilateral meeting between Mr Modi and President Trump that followed the publicly-aired comments focused only on issues of trade and energy and there was no discussion on Kashmir there, foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale said later. Significantly, Mr Modi told President Trump that “$4 billion worth of imports are already in the pipeline” from the United States and that “we (India) expect to step it up”. Needless to say, the US views India as a major market to boost its exports.

Foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale said the Kashmir issue did come up for discussion at a meeting earlier between Mr Modi and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. “The Prime Minister laid out our basic position (to the UN Secretary-General) on the internal matter that Article 370 is under the Constitution, that on the international front no step has been taken by India in any way or form to threaten regional peace and stability, on the fact that normalcy is returning to the state of J&K, that in many areas restrictions have been substantially eased ... and underlining that the people and the state (of J&K) have faced terrorism for 30 or more years and this is the primary threat, this is our concern. In keeping with that certain restrictions will remain in place to ensure that law and order is maintained and will be progressively lifted,” Mr Gokhale said.

US diplomatic sources said President Trump emphasised the need for dialogue between India and Pakistan to reduce tensions and discussed ways to strengthen the strategic partnership and increase trade between India and the United States.

Mr Modi said: “All the issues between India and Pakistan are of bilateral in nature, and we don’t want to trouble any third country. We can discuss and resolve these issues bilaterally... Before 1947, we were one country. We can find solutions through discussions.”

“When I had called Prime Minister Khan after the elections, I told him that Pakistan has to fight against poverty, India has to also fight against it. Pakistan has to fight against illiteracy and disease, and India has to also fight against them... I told him we should work together for the welfare of our people,” Mr Modi further said.

“We spoke last night about Kashmir, the Prime Minister really feels he has it (situation) under control. They speak with Pakistan and I’m sure that they will be able to do something that will be very good,” President Trump said. “I have a very good relationship with both the gentlemen (PMs Modi and Khan) ... I think they can do it (resolve the issue) themselves.”

On the actual 40-minute bilateral meeting between Mr Modi and President Trump, Mr Gokhale said the “warm and positive” as well as “substantially long” meeting “principally focused on issues of trade and energy”. Mr Gokhale said: “The PM spoke about the importance of energy imports from the United States. that $4 billion worth of imports are already in the pipeline and that we expect to step it up.” Mr Gokhale said Mr Modi will visit the US next month, and will have a roundtable meeting with top American CEOs associated with the energy sector. He said the that meeting would focus on “how we (India) can import more energy from the US and how we (India) can invest in the energy sector in the US”.

Mr Gokhale said: “This was welcomed by President Trump who spoke very warmly of the fact that India had become a major importer of energy. He was willing to send top US administration officials down to Houston to ensure that the bilateral energy relationship progresses. There was also some discussion on the trade issues.” He added that Mr Modi had said that India is in a “forward-looking” position on trade issues and that he had offered to send commerce minister Piyush Goyal to the US.

The US President was also quoted by news agencies as saying before the meeting: “We are talking about trade, we’re talking about military and many different things. We had some great discussions, we were together last night for dinner and I learned a lot about India.” The US also apparently emphasised India’s important role and contribution to the development of Afghanistan.