New Delhi, May 22 (UNI) In the face of US President Donald Trump’s offer to mediate, India today reiterated that any engagement with Pakistan has to be bilateral, and also that talks and terror don’t go together.
The Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal, in his media briefing, said:
“You are well aware of our position that any India-Pakistan engagement has to be bilateral. At the same time, I would like to remind you that talks and terror don't go together.“
“On the issue of terrorism, we are open to discussing the handing over to India of noted terrorists whose list was provided to Pakistan some years ago,” he said
“I would like to underline that any bilateral discussion on Jammu & Kashmir will only be on the vacation of illegally occupied Indian territory by Pakistan.
“On the Indus Waters Treaty, it will remain in abeyance until Pakistan credibly and irrevocably abjures its support for cross-border terrorism. As our Prime Minister has said, "Water and blood cannot flow together."
US President Donald Trump on Wednesday had again claimed he had settled the recent hostilities between India and Pakistan, and reiterated that trade was involved in the process. He made the remarks during a meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in the Oval Office.
“If you take a look at what we did with Pakistan and India…we settled that whole…and I think I settled it through trade,” Trump said, adding, that the US was “doing a big deal” with India.
Earlier this week, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri told a Parliamentary panel that Washington was “neither involved nor informed” about the cessation of hostilities.
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