While urging regional peace in South Asia, the US has stated that “the nature of any discussion between India and Pakistan is an issue for those two countries.”
During the department’s weekly press briefing, Ned Price, a spokeswoman for the US State Department, was asked about how India turned down Pakistan’s request to discuss “burning concerns” between the two neighbors.
He continued by saying that the US does not view its relations with Pakistan and India as a “zero-sum game” and that they stand on their own in terms of Washington.
India requested “serious” negotiations on the Kashmir conflict.
The pace, breadth, and character of any engagement between India and Pakistan are a matter for those two countries, Price continued, thus they “stand on their own.”
After asking Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to hold negotiations to settle disputes, Shehbaz Sharif, the Pakistani prime minister, made his speech.
In an interview with the Al Arabiya news station, the prime minister said, “Let us sit down at the table and have genuine and sincere talks to settle our burning concerns, like Kashmir. That is my message to the Indian leadership and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.”
“Minorities in India face discrimination. This needs to cease so that the world will know that India is willing to engage in dialogue, he continued.
The message I want to convey to Prime Minister Modi is that we want to reduce poverty, achieve prosperity, and provide jobs, healthcare, and educational opportunities for our citizens rather than squandering our money on bombs and ammunition.
He said, “God forbid a conflict breaks out, we are nuclear powers, armed to the teeth, and who will live to tell what occurred.”
Later, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) issued a statement that made it clear that discussions with India could only begin once that nation reversed its “illegal action of August 5, 2019” in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).
Negotiations are impossible, according to the PMO, without India rescinding its illegal move from August 5, 2019.