Srinagar: A day after China offered to help mediate in Kashmir to bring “peace and stability to the region”, India’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Gopal Baglay said on Friday, “We are ready to talk Kashmir with Pakistan, but no third party mediation…Our stand is absolutely clear,” NDTV reported.
China on Wednesday said the “situation” in Jammu and Kashmir has attracted international attention and urged India and Pakistan to avoid escalating tensions. They were not clear about what the “situation” exactly meant.
China offered to play a “constructive role” in improving India-Pakistan ties, saying the “conflict” in Kashmir had attracted the world community’s attention, but offered no comment or condolences for the attack on Amarnath pilgrims.
Rebuffing China’s offer, India on Thursday ruled out any third party mediation on Kashmir about which it is ready to talk to Pakistan at a bilateral level as “terrorism is at the core of the problem” between the two countries.
Reacting to the Chinese Foreign Office spokesperson’s remarks that China was ready to mediate between India and Pakistan over Kashmir, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Gopal Baglay said “cross-border terrorism was at the heart of the issues between New Delhi and Islamabad.”
The Chinese foreign ministry on Wednesday offered to play a “constructive role” in improving India-Pakistan ties over Kashmir where the “situation has attracted the attention of the international community”.
On Saturday evening (tomorrow), Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh will brief the leaders of opposition parties on the developments in China, and also the recent attack on Amarnath ‘yatris’ or pilgrims in which seven people were killed in Jammu and Kashmir. The Government of India hopes to build support among the opposition ahead of parliament starting its new session on Monday.
For over five weeks, the two countries have been involved in a stand-off along a part of their 3,500 kilometres shared border. Since both the countries are populous and have very robust economies, and have fought a war over border disputes in 1962, the stand-off has attracted global media attention.
Both India and China have rushed more troops to the border as the divide between the two neighbouring countries is turning out to be one of the longest since the India-China war of 1962.
