New Delhi: US President Donald Trump’s reiteration of his offer to mediate on the Jammu and Kashmir issue during his bilateral meeting with Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan is not a reflection of America’s Pakistan policy, said experts.
Trump and Khan met on the sidelines of the UNGA meeting in New York Monday. During the meeting, Trump said he was ready to mediate and ensure “arbitration” if approached by both India and Pakistan.
At a joint press conference with Khan, Trump also said he would like to see India and Pakistan coming together and “do something that’s really smart and good for both”.
The bilateral meeting took place a day after President Trump joined Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the mega ‘Howdy, Modi!’ event in Houston, Texas, where Modi launched a veiled attack on Pakistan, stating that the scrapping of Article 370 and 35A had upset only one country that continues to house terrorists.
‘Trump known for off-the-cuff remarks’
“It would be a mistake for Pakistanis (or Indians, for that matter) to see his off-the-cuff remarks as an indication of the direction of US policy,” said Husain Haqqani, the former Pakistani ambassador to the US. “President Trump often ad-libs and does not like following a script from professionals,” he added.
“We should remember his statements about Russia with President Putin and North Korea with Kim Jong-un,” said Haqqani, now a senior fellow and director at the South and Central Asia department of think-tank Hudson Institute.
“Trump was just playing with both sides,” said Ayesha Siddiqa, a research associate at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London.
Siddiqa also said Trump’s intention was not to “rock the India and Pakistan boat as far as relations of both countries with the US is concerned”.
“US is only sticking to its traditional position. This is not going to cause awkwardness for India at all,” said T.C.A. Raghavan, former Indian high commissioner to Pakistan. “This is nothing new. The point is that his presence at the Howdy Modi event shows how he perceives US-India ties.”
This isn’t the first time that Trump has offered to mediate on the issue. He first said that he would “love to be a mediator” on the issue when he hosted Imran Khan at the White House on 22 July. The US president had then said that Modi had also asked him to mediate on the issue, which India quickly denied.
Also read: Heard very aggressive statement from Modi on Pakistani terror, Trump says as Imran listens