India and Pakistan will figure it out ‘one way or the other’: Trump

However, there was some relief in New Delhi since he has not reiterated his offer to mediate which he had made in his first term.

Onboard Air Force One en route to Rome, Trump was asked about tension between India and Pakistan in the wake of the Pahalgam attack and if he would be talking to the leaders of the two nations.

“I am very close to India and I’m very close to Pakistan, as you know. And they’ve had that fight for 1,000 years in Kashmir. Kashmir has been going on for 1,000 years, probably longer than that. And it was a bad one yesterday, though, that was a bad one. Over 30 people,” Trump said during the press gaggle with reporters.

There have been “tensions on that border for 1,500 years. So you know, the same as it’s been, but they’ll get it figured out one way or the other. I’m sure… I know both leaders. There is great tension between Pakistan and India. But there always has been”, he said.

Trump’s liberties with time aren’t new.

In February, during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit, asked if the US deep state had a role in Bangladesh whose ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina took shelter in India, Trump had said: “There was no role for our deep state. This is something that the Prime Minister has been working on for a long time, for hundreds of years, frankly I have been reading about it. I will leave Bangladesh to the Prime Minister.”

Still, Delhi is relieved. In July 2019, President Trump, in his first term, had claimed that Prime Minister Modi has asked him to play the role of a mediator on Jammu and Kashmir.

Within an hour of Trump’s statement, the Ministry of External Affairs’ then official spokesperson Raveesh Kumar had contradicted the US President’s statement and said that “no such request has been made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi”.

“We have seen @POTUS’s remarks to the press that he is ready to mediate, if requested by India & Pakistan, on Kashmir issue. No such request has been made by PM @narendramodi to US President. It has been India’s consistent position that all outstanding issues with Pakistan are discussed only bilaterally. Any engagement with Pakistan would require an end to cross border terrorism. The Shimla Agreement & the Lahore Declaration provide the basis to resolve all issues between India & Pakistan bilaterally,” Kumar had tweeted back then.

Trump later didn’t reiterate the desire to mediate and had walked back on the issue.