WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Monday offered to mediate Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan.
Trump made the offer in response to a question by a journalist.
“If I can help, I would love to be a mediator,” Trump said.
“If I can do anything to help, let me know,” he said, to which PM Imran said that if Trump would, he would “have the prayers of more than a billion people.”
Earlier, Prime Minister Imran Khan arrived at the White House shortly after 12pm local time for his first one-on-one meeting with US President Donald Trump.
He was received by President Trump, who greeted him with a handshake and a pat on the arm.
In televised remarks from inside the Oval Office, President Trump noted that the US is working with Pakistan to leave Afghanistan, and does not want the US to be policeman in the region.
“Pakistan is helping us a lot now on Afghanistan,” he said.
To a question asking about his own views on Pakistan in the past, Trump said, “I don’t think Pakistan respected the United States [in the past]. I don’t think Pakistan respected its [the United States’] presidents. I think Pakistan could have done a tremendous amount with respect to Afghanistan: they didn’t do it — another blame game because they were dealing with the wrong presidents — who knows?
“I think they could have help us a lot in the past, but it doesn’t matter [now]. We have a new leader, he is going be a great leader of Pakistan. We have a sort of new leader here [in the US] … but now I think Pakistan could have done a lot but it choose not to just because they didn’t respect US leadership,” he said, indicating that he felt it was weaknesses in past leadership of the two countries that prevented a breakthrough.
