Kashmir issue: India rejects demand for US intervention

PM Nawaz sought US help to resolve the issue during stopover in London.

India has rejected Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s request for US intervention in resolving the Kashmir issue, the Press Trust of India reported on Sunday.

“There is no way in which India will accept any intervention on an issue that is entirely accepted in the Simla Agreement as a bilateral issue between India and Pakistan,” Indian External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said in an interview with NDTV.

Terming Kashmir an integral part of India, he said, “It is a waste of time for anybody no matter how eminent to be even trying to question this.”

Ahead of his meeting with US President Barack Obama, Prime Minister Nawaz sought US intervention in resolving the Kashmir issue.

“Though India has rejected such (third party) intervention, the world powers should get involved in finding a resolution to the (Kashmir) issue,” he told reporters in London late on Saturday during a stopover on his way to the US. The premier is set to meet the US president on Wednesday.

In his interview, Khurshid also said that any US economic aid to Pakistan must not be used in a manner that is detrimental to India’s security and strategic interests, and hoped Washington would keep that in mind as a ‘good strategic partner’.

Meanwhile, India will assess whether Pakistan is serious about the ceasefire along the LoC after the meeting between the two countries’ directors general military operations (DGMOs), the Times of India reported on Sunday.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 21^st, 2013.