US President Donald Trump has called Kashmir as a “very complicated place”. Trump said there is a lot to do with religion. He said both the countries have not gotten along well for a “long time” and he said it is a “explosive situation”. “Kashmir is a very complicated place. You have Hindus and you have the Muslims and I wouldn’t say they get along so great,” Trump told to the media in the White House. He said he will do the best he can to mediate in Kashmir issue. Trump urged both the countries to hold talks and thus “reduce tension over Kashmir bilaterally.”
Already, Trump has spoken to both Modi and Imran Khan on the issue. Trump reportedly told Imran to “tone down the rhetoric” as it is not conducive to speech. This is after Modi’s phone call to Trump. Earlier on Monday, Modi had a 30-minute telephonic conversation with Donald Trump in which he “stated that extreme rhetoric and incitement to anti-India violence by certain leaders in the region was not conducive to peace,” the Indian government said.
Meanwhile, Trump is expected to raise the matter again with PM Modi over the weekend. Both Trump and Modi are likely to meet in France on the sidelines of the summit of the Group of Seven (G7) industrialized nations.
On the other hand, Pakistan on Tuesday said it will approach the International Court of Justice over India’s decision to abrogate Articles 370, 35A which ends special status to Jammu and Kashmir. Reacting to this, Syed Akbaruddin, India’s envoy to the United Nations, said, “Every country is entitled to use every course available to them. We have different approaches too. If they would like to tackle us in different arenas, we will address it in that arena. This is an arena of their choice. They tried once, but they did not succeed.”
It can be noted that Pakistan and its ally China got a major set back when the former raised the matter in the United Nations Security Council as the participating 15 nations – five permanent members and 10 rotating members – opined that ending Special Status to Jammu and Kashmir and dividing it into two UTs is a bilateral matter between India and Pakistan.
