Need for caution on Trump's Kashmir offer

NEW YORK: There is a need for caution in expressing joy and gratitude over US President Donald Trump’s third offer to resolve the Kashmir issue.

President Trump made the first promise in big words to resolve the Kashmir dispute on July 22, 2019, during his first term as president. No verbal, diplomatic or practical steps have been taken in the last four months since he was elected the US president for the second time.

The videos of President Trump’s public promises to resolve the Kashmir dispute are still preserved in the US White House records.

Trump first promised to mediate on the Kashmir dispute during a conversation with this correspondent on July 22, 2019, during the visit of the then Pakistani prime minister. After the first promise, India revoked the special status of the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir, and the Kashmir dispute still exists.

Despite his assurances to do something about the Kashmir dispute, President Trump failed to take diplomatic or practical steps in his first term in office.

After stopping the war between Pakistan and India and establishing a ceasefire, President Trump has once again offered his role in resolving the Kashmir issue and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has thanked President Trump, while the Modi government and the Indian media, like in the past, are once again outraged and are criticising President Trump’s statement.

For us, these verbal and happy promises of Trump, devoid of practical actions, have brought joy to the extent that these statements temporarily made the Kashmir issue the centre of attention of international media and shocked and angered India, which illegally occupies Kashmir.

Originally published in The News