Trump seem unwilling to let go of desire to resolve the Kashmir issue

U.S. President Donald Trump just couldn't seem to let go of his desire to resolve the Kashmir dispute, and he went back to it announcing that he made an offer to India's Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Pakistan's Imran Khan during their meetings this week.

"We spoke of Kashmir," he said on Wednesday at a news conference here.

He said, "And whatever help I can be, I said I offered, whether it's arbitration or mediation, or whatever it should be, I'm going to do whatever I can. Because they're at very serious odds right now, and hopefully it's going to get better." At the same time, he left it to both leaders to find a way to deal with the situation.

He said, "You look at the two gentlemen heading those two countries— two good friends of mine— I said,' Fellas, work it out. Just work it out.' Those are two nuclear countries. They've got to work it out." Yet, he couldn't seem to let go of the idea of getting himself a role with an eye on the Nobel Prize, which he also said he wouldn't get anything he did even though he said it wasn't possible until both parties do not agree to it.

Trump's latest statement caps four days back and forth on Kashmir when he first met Modi in Houston on Sunday, then Khan on Monday and Modi again on Wednesday.

At Howdy Modi event in Houston, he said, "We are committed to protecting innocent civilians from the threat of radical Islamic terrorism." He complimented Modi and sat through his speech in which he slammed Islamabad for its involvement with terrorism.

But on Monay, just before meeting Khan, he said "Modi was very aggressive with his remarks on Pakistan and he wasn't expecting it. He said "India may come" to mediate on Kashmir around him.

Before meeting with Modi on Tuesday, Trump said it was up to Modi to give Pakistan the anti-terrorism message and the two South Asian leaders are going to work things out.

A statement from the White House on the meeting said, "President Modi motivated Prime Minister to ease tensions with Pakistan and fulfill his promise to improve the lives of the Kashmiri people." But all this is a far cry from Trump's claim in July as he met Khan that Modi had asked him to mediate on Kashmir.

India denied any such request, and U.S. officials agreed that it was bilateral.

The fact of the matter, however, remains that Trump has acknowledged through the twists and turns that as India has maintained it is a bilateral matter and that his role is out unless New Delhi agrees which it would not.

After showering compliments on Modi, going to the absurd length of calling him "Father of India", it was down to the colloquial "Fella" at his press conference on Wednesday.

(Arul Louis can be contacted at arul.l@.in and followed on Twitter @arulouis)

( With inputs from IANS )