Trump offers Kashmir mediation as Imran Khan meets him
During the meeting, the American leadership is likely to press Khan to take "decisive and irreversible" actions against terrorist and militant groups operating from Pakistani soil and facilitate peace talks with the Taliban.
By : migrator
Update: 2019-07-22 17:37 GMT
Washington
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan for the first time met Donald Trump at the White House, a crucial meeting aimed at repairing the bilateral ties that were hit after the US president publicly criticised Islamabad, cancelled military aid and asked it to do more to fight terrorism.
Khan, who was accompanied by Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Lt Gen Faiz Hameed and Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi among others, was greeted by Trump upon his arrival at the White House.
"The Prime Minister of Pakistan is here to showcase his vision of a 'Naya Pakistan' and to start a new era of bilateral relations. We have come with a narrative of peace and prosperity in the region," Qureshi tweeted soon after Khan's meeting with Trump.
During the meeting, the American leadership is likely to press Khan to take "decisive and irreversible" actions against terrorist and militant groups operating from Pakistani soil and facilitate peace talks with the Taliban.
Trump for the first time offered to mediate between India and Pakistan on the Kashmir issue as he met Prime Minister Imran Khan.
Trump said that he is ready to help, if the two countries ask. "If I can help, I would love to be a mediator," Trump said in his opening remarks at the Oval Office during his meeting with Khan. Khan welcomed Trump's remarks and said if the US agrees, prayers of more than a billion people will be with him.
India maintains that the Kashmir issue is a bilateral one and no third party has any role. India has not been engaging with Pakistan since an attack on the Air Force base at Pathankot in January of 2016 by Pakistan-based terrorists, maintaining that talks and terror cannot go together.
Nawaz Sharif was the last Pakistani prime minister to visit the US on an official trip in October 2015.
Trump, in addition to a one-on-one meeting in the Oval Office, will host the visiting delegation over a working lunch at the White House.
The relations between Pakistan and the US have remained tense during Trump's tenure. The US president has publicly said that Pakistan has given us "nothing but lies and deceit" and also suspended security and other assistance for backing terror groups.
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