The United States supports a constructive dialogue and meaningful conversation between India and Pakistan, the Biden administration said Thursday reiterating that it's for New Delhi and Islamabad to decide on the nature of that dialogue.
The United Nations is available to mediate between India and Pakistan if the two neighbours request such assistance in resolving the Kashmir issue, a spokesperson for UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has said.
A top leader of the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan has said that his group will seek mediation by countries like Saudi Arabia if the government offers to hold peace talks.
'Many senior officers are unhappy with him, but many lower level officers are still supportive.' 'This is also not something that has happened for a long time. So this is certainly a milestone.'
'The Indian side has realised that not talking to Pakistan has not served any useful purpose.'
Times have changed, situations have changed, but the basic nature of superpower geo-politics remains the same and so also India's diplomacy -- call it non-alignment, strategic autonomy or neutrality; it all depends on the time scale, notes Rup Narayan Das.
Rebuffed by the Obama administration on its effort to seek US intervention on Kashmir, Pakistan has said that it has never made such a "demand" and just presented its wish list to Americans on the issue.
Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif continues his exhortation for US mediation in Kashmir, and harks back to his meeting with former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee when the latter had agreed to a resolution of Kashmir imbroglio; senior us officials assert there is 'absolutely no change in us policy' that Kashmir has to be resolved bilaterally. Aziz Haniffa reports.
The United States, through its embassies in New Delhi and Islamabad, is engaging with the Indian and Pakistani governments on bilateral talks, which the Narendra Modi government called off while objecting to Pakistan consulting Kashmiri separatists ahead of the meeting.
'We have had three wars with India, and they have only brought more misery, poverty, and unemployment to the people'
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Ruling out any third party intervention on the Kashmir issue, Union Minister Shashi Tharoor said had Pakistan acted in the spirit of the Simla accord the question of external mediation would not have come up.
The Home Ministry may play the role of mediator between the BCCI and the Himachal Pradesh government, which expressed its inability to provide security to the India-Pakistan World Twenty20 match scheduled to be held in Dharamsala on March 19. Home Ministry officials said there is a need to sort out the differences between after state Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh wrote a letter to Home Minister Rajnath Singh stating that his government cannot provide security for the match. "It is a matter of concern that Himachal Pradesh government expressed its inability to provide security to the match. It is an event involving players of two countries. We will try to convince the state government," an official said.
'Their deteriorating economic and international situation is also responsible for being more reasonable.'
Council on Foreign Relations Senior Fellow Daniel Markey Tuesday said that the raising of the issue of American intervention in Jammu and Kashmir by visiting Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington was not 'especially constructive' and was motivated by political expediency.
United States President Donald Trump remarks on Monday that Prime Minister Narendra Modi sought his mediation on the Kashmir issue will "damage" the Indo-US relations, ex-diplomats said.
'Whether it was a habitual expression of post truth or an open offer to India and Pakistan, even Imran Khan could not have believed it,' says Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
"I think they are fantastic people - Khan and Modi -- I mean. I would imagine they could get along very well, but if they wanted somebody to intervene, to help them.... and I spoke with Pakistan about that and I spoke frankly in (sic) India about it," Trump said.
If the FATF lets Pakistan off the hook, which is to be expected, it would signify a big boost to Pakistan's standing in the fight against terrorism. Delhi, on the other hand, loses the propaganda advantage, states Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Three years before Pokhran II nuclear tests in 1998, India was interested in negotiations with Pakistan on elimination of atomic weapons from the subcontinent and was receptive to United States' mediation in this regard, an influential American Senator claimed on Friday.
Modi betrayed the interests of the country, the Congress leader said.
'The Pakistani move to ban militant outfits and placate international opinion and Islamabad's openness to a UN security council resolution on Azhar -- instead of beseeching China to cast yet another veto -- enables Islamabad to occupy the high ground,' notes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
"The political stars never quite aligned but a solution similar to the Northern Ireland Good Friday Agreement, with a soft border allowing locals to travel freely from one part of Kashmir to the other, will have to be the outcome of any peaceful solution," he noted.
Last month, President Trump offered to be the "mediator" between India and Pakistan on the Kashmir issue when he met Prime Minister Imran Khan for the first time at the White House.
According to Khan's schedule, the first meeting between both the leaders will be at lunch, whereas, the other will be at high tea, Geo News reported.
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) is hopeful that following the thaw in India and Pakistan relations a breakthrough will come soon in the restoration of bilateral cricket ties with a short series in England likely to open doors in 2016.
'In our media and general population the idea of 'strong posture' was successfully sold by Modi. This is now a liability for him, as he has discovered,' says Aakar Patel.
The external affairs minister said all outstanding issues between India and Pakistan can be discussed only bilaterally.
Bill Clinton says he firmly rejected Pakistan's pleas to mediate on the Kashmir issue at the height of the Kargil crisis because India objected to third party intervention.
'The Indian version is that the two top diplomats merely exchanged pleasantries, while the Pakistani side characterised the encounter as an 'informal dialogue'.' 'The truth, as always in such piquant situations, is somewhere in between.' 'It stands to reason that ice has been broken,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The 13th report of the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team cites a UN Member State as saying that Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), a Deobandi group ideologically closer to the Taliban "maintains eight training camps in Nangarhar, three of which are directly under Taliban control."
Trump offered to be the "mediator" between India and Pakistan on the Kashmir issue as he met Prime Minister Imran Khan at the White House.
Guterres referred to the Simla Agreement, which is a bilateral agreement and rejects any third-party mediation in the issue.
May told the House of Commons that the UK remained in regular contact with both countries and was working towards de-escalating tensions.
'Washington is telegraphing here is its willingness to support a low-grade, limited use of force meant to send a strong message to Pakistan.' 'Perhaps something along the lines of the surgical strikes in 2016, or perhaps something a bit more -- but not much more.'
'Foreign ministry sources in Delhi discount the official version of the story, in which Modi made an impromptu request to stop over at Lahore, during the course of a birthday telephone call to Nawaz Sharif. In fact, this stopover had been carefully considered in Delhi, as a way to galvanise the peace process further.'
'The 2017 Doklam stand-off in Bhutan, the 2018 Maldives crisis, and the 2020 Nepal Kalapani border dispute shows how Beijing has shot off these countries' shoulders to target India.'
Trump, addressing reporters at the UN on Wednesday, said he has had "very productive conversations" with leaders of India and Pakistan on the margins of the UN General Assembly. "With respect to Pakistan and India, we talked about Kashmir. Whatever help I can be, I said, I offered, whether it's arbitration or mediation or whatever it has to be."
The United States has rejected the idea of appointing a special envoy to resolve differences between India and Pakistan, saying American ambassadors in the two nations have reached out to the host governments to encourage dialogue while ruling out any change in its Kashmir policy.
"we're talking about Kashmir and the relation to what's going on with Pakistan and India. And if we can help, we certainly will be helping," the President said.
