United States President Donald Trump has supplied to work with India and Pakistan to attain a “answer” for the long-disputed Kashmir area, days after his administration brokered a ceasefire between the 2 nuclear-armed rivals.
“I’ll work with you, each to see if, after a ‘thousand years,’ an answer will be arrived at regarding Kashmir,” Trump posted on his Reality Social platform on Sunday.
The US president doubled down on a traditionally inaccurate assertion that India and Pakistan have been preventing for “a thousand years” or extra.
The Muslim-majority territory has been contested because the partition of British India in 1947 into India and Pakistan. The 2 nations have fought three wars over the area. They each stake a declare over Kashmir as a complete however management components of it.
India-administered Kashmir has seen many years of armed riot both for independence or a merger with Pakistan. New Delhi has deployed greater than 700,000 troopers to quash the riot.
The federal government of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has to date remained dedicated to a decades-old coverage of refusing worldwide mediation to discover a answer to the Kashmir situation. In 2019, Modi’s authorities stripped India-administered Kashmir’s semiautonomy, additional alienating the Kashmiris.
In its response, Pakistan’s Ministry of International Affairs stated in an announcement on Sunday that it appreciates Trump’s willingness to resolve the Kashmir situation, which has implications for peace and safety in South Asia and past.
“Pakistan reaffirms that any simply and lasting settlement of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute have to be in accordance with the related United Nations Safety Council resolutions and should guarantee the belief of the elemental rights of the Kashmiri folks, together with their inalienable proper to self-determination,” it stated.
India’s leaders haven’t immediately commented, however Indian media quoted unnamed authorities sources as saying no choice has but been made to have interaction in talks on something past the ceasefire.
India and Pakistan agreed to halt all preventing on Saturday, however Trump was the primary particular person to announce the deal on his on-line platform.
In his submit on Sunday, Trump took credit score for the ceasefire.
“I’m proud that the USA was in a position that can assist you arrive at this historic and heroic choice,” he wrote.
“Whereas not even mentioned, I’m going to extend commerce, considerably, with each of those nice nations.”
The most recent preventing between the 2 neighbours began when India attacked Pakistan within the aftermath of a capturing assault in India-administered Kashmir’s Pahalgam, which killed 26 civilians at a vacationer location.
New Delhi once more accused Pakistan of backing the “terrorist” teams which have launched many lethal assaults in India-administered Kashmir for many years.
Pakistan strongly denies the costs, sustaining that India has supported “terrorism” in its territory for a few years and the Pahalgam assault was a false-flag operation to start out a battle.
The missile, drone and artillery assaults signified probably the most critical preventing between the 2 nations since they grew to become nuclear-armed powers many years in the past.
‘Impartial’ web site for talks
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated on Saturday that along with the ceasefire, the 2 nations agreed to conduct broad talks over a bunch of points at a “impartial” web site quickly.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Saturday stated his nation believes within the path of peaceable negotiations to resolve issues round distribution of water sources and “all points, together with Jammu and Kashmir”.
However India has for many years refused to carry negotiations over the contested area because it has tried to strengthen its maintain over it.
Indian troopers are deployed at a market in Srinagar in India-administered Kashmir on Might 6, 2025 (Mukhtar Khan/AP)
Mohmad Waseem Malla, a analysis fellow on the Worldwide Centre for Peace Research in New Delhi, advised Al Jazeera that Trump’s assertion, although not totally stunning, was “hanging each in tone and substance” and more likely to increase considerations in New Delhi.
“Any suggestion of third-party involvement, even in passing, crosses a purple line for New Delhi – particularly underneath the present authorities, which has redefined the nation’s overseas coverage and its emphasis on territorial sovereignty.”
He added that whereas Trump’s point out of boosting commerce and selling peace could appear conciliatory internationally, India’s home political local weather and strategic priorities make it tough to entertain such provides proper now.
“The important thing might be how New Delhi calibrates its response given present sensitivities.”
The 2 nations even have but to resolve their variations over water distribution as India’s suspension of its participation within the Indus Waters Treaty stays in place.
In response to the Pahalgam assault, India additionally expelled Pakistani diplomats, army advisers and visa holders; closed its primary land border crossing and suspended commerce; and launched a manhunt for the perpetrators.
Pakistan responded by kicking out Indian officers and residents, closing its airspace to Indian flights and threatening to drag out of the Simla Settlement, which underpins the Line of Management in Kashmir.
