Kashmir issue is bilateral between India and Pakistan: MEA

India on Tuesday said its long-standing position on Kashmir has been that it is a bilateral issue between New Delhi and Islamabad and there is no change of this stand.

The assertion came against the backdrop of US President Donald Trump’s renewed offer to mediate on the Kashmir issue.

“We have a longstanding national position that any issues pertaining to the Indian Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir have to be addressed by India and Pakistan bilaterally,” external affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said.

“That stated policy has not changed. As you are aware, the outstanding matter is the vacation of illegally occupied Indian territory by Pakistan,” he said.

Jaiswal was responding to a question on Trump’s offer.

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On speculation on nuclear war by Trump, Jaiswal said the military action was entirely in the conventional domain.

“There were some reports that Pakistan’s National Command Authority will meet on May 10. But this was later denied by them. Pakistan foreign minister has himself denied the nuclear angle on record,” Jaiswal said.

“As you know, India has a firm stance that it will not give in to nuclear blackmail or allow cross-border terrorism to be conducted invoking it,” he said.

“In conversations with various countries, we also cautioned that their subscribing to such scenarios could hurt them in their own region,” he added.

Jaiswal said India will keep Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance until Pakistan credibly and irrevocably abjures support for cross-border terrorism.

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Pakistan nurtured terrorism on an industrial scale, he said.

Terrorist infrastructure that India destroyed under Operation Sindoor were responsible not only for the deaths of Indians but of many other innocents around world, he said.