India's Ambassador to the United States, Harsh Vardhan Shringla, on Monday stated that US President Donald Trump has said that the mediation offer which he had offered between India and Pakistan on Kashmir is not on the table anymore.
Shringla said that Trump clear that his offer to mediate was dependent on the acceptance of both India and Pakistan. He said that since India has not accepted the offer of mediation, Trump cleared that this is now off the table.
The US president had stunned India on July 22, 2019, by claiming that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had sought his mediation on the Kashmir issue. Trump made his claim during his joint presser with visiting Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan at the White House. His claim came as a surprise for India as it has been the policy of the country that Kashmir is a bilateral issue between the two nuclear-armed countries.
After a week of making his claim, the US president had said that he would certainly intervene on Kashmir if both the countries wanted him to do so. He asserted that it was up to the two countries to settle the long-pending issue and he was ready to assist the two.
On August 05, the BJP-led NDA government announced the abrogation of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution that guaranteed special status to Jammu and Kashmir under the Constitution. The state was also divided into two Union Territories — Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. There has been lockdown in the Valley following the revocation of special constitutional status.
