US president pledges to mediate between nuclear rivals days after his government facilitates ceasefire. United States President Donald Trump has pledged to mediate between India and Pakistan to find a “solution” for the centuries-old disputed region of Kashmir, days after his government facilitated a ceasefire between the two nuclear rivals.
I will work with you, both to determine if, after a ‘thousand years,’ a solution can be reached regarding Kashmir,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social website on Sunday. The US president doubled down on a historically inaccurate claim that India and Pakistan have been battling for “a thousand years” or more.
The Muslim region has been disputed since the 1947 partition of British India into Pakistan and India. The two nations have engaged in three wars over the area. They both claim Kashmir in its entirety but occupy some of it. India-administered Kashmir has seen decades of armed rebellion either for independence or a merger with Pakistan. New Delhi has deployed more than 700,000 soldiers to quash the uprising.
The government of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has so far remained committed to a decades-old policy of refusing international mediation to find a solution to the Kashmir issue. In 2019, Modi’s government stripped India-administered Kashmir’s semi-autonomy, further alienating the Kashmiris.
In its reply, Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated in a release on Sunday that it appreciates Trump’s readiness to resolve the Kashmir dispute, which has regional and international implications for peace and security.
Pakistan reiterates that any fair and durable solution to the Jammu and Kashmir dispute has to be in line with the United Nations Security Council resolutions relevant to the dispute and must provide for the realization of the basic rights of the people of Kashmir, including their inalienable right to self-determination,” it added.
India’s leaders have not commented directly, but Indian media quoted unidentified government sources as saying no decision has yet been reached to hold talks on anything other than the ceasefire. India and Pakistan agreed to suspend all hostilities on Saturday, but Trump was the first to announce the agreement on his online platform.
