Facing a pushback from India on US President Donald Trump’s on Kashmir, the US State Department has sought to nuance Washington’s position by saying it “encourages direct communication” between India and Pakistan and commends Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif for choosing the path of peace.
The State Department is aware of New ’s sensitivities on an issue like mediation by the US, and has articulated a carefully-crafted factual statement that doesn’t wade into the India-Pakistan politics, and doesn’t contradict President Trump either.
Principal Deputy Spokesperson at the State Department Thomas Pigott said at a press briefing Tuesday (early Wednesday India time): “We also welcome the ceasefire between India and Pakistan and commend Prime Ministers Modi and Sharif for choosing the path of peace. As President Trump said, their decision reflects strength, wisdom, and fortitude.”
“We urge both sides to maintain direct communication to preserve regional stability,” he said.
In response to a question on whether, in his calls with the Pakistani leaders, Secretary of State Marco Rubio had received any commitment that they (Pakistan) will dismantle the terrorist infrastructure there, Pigott said he is not going to talk about private diplomatic conversations.
“What I can say is reiterating what we have been saying for a couple days now is that we welcome the ceasefire reached between India and Pakistan this weekend and we commend both Prime Ministers for choosing the path of peace.”
“The President Truthed about this. He was very clear in terms of that. We also want to encourage direct communication between the parties. That is something we have also been clear about as well,” Pigott said, referring to social media platform Truth Social.
On India refusing any US effort to mediate and how hopeful is Washington to bring the two countries together in the same room for talks, Pigott said: “Well, I am not going to speculate on that. What I can say is that we encourage direct communication. We have been clear on that. We continue to encourage that direct communication.”
“The President has been clear on that. And the President, as I said, has also been clear in praising both Prime Ministers for choosing the path towards peace and the wisdom and fortitude that that shows.”
On whether the US had sent a team to Pakistan following reports of leaks of nuclear radiation, he said he has nothing to preview on that at this time.
He said the US is happy to see the “ceasefire”. “That is what we are happy to see. That’s where our focus remains. And we want to see a ceasefire be maintained, and we want to encourage direct communication. That is our focus here. Our focus is the ceasefire. Our focus is on encouraging direct communication. That’s where our focus is going to remain. The President has spoken on this,” he said.
“…the President — President Trump — is a peacemaker. He’s a peacemaker. He values peace. He’s also a dealmaker, and he has shown that again and again and again in terms of both pursuing an America First agenda but also pursuing peace and wanting to see peace and conflicts come to an end,” Pigott said.
He did not point specifically about the “US-brokered ceasefire agreement”, and merely said: “We want to see direct communication between the parties. And when it comes to, again, solving conflicts that have existed in regions around the world, the President wants to solve those conflicts when he can.”
With Trump claiming credit for “mediation” in stopping a “nuclear” conflict, offering to work for a “solution on Kashmir”, and saying America will do a “lot of trade” with both India and Pakistan if they end hostilities — India had on Tuesday given a sharply worded rebuttal on each and every point.
New Delhi ruled out mediation saying the only outstanding matter is the vacation of illegally occupied territory by Pakistan. It said trade never came up for discussions with the US, underlined that India won’t give in to “nuclear blackmail”, and gave a chronological account of conversations to reinforce the point that it was Pakistan which reached out towards pausing military action after an extremely effective attack by Indian forces on key Pakistani Air Force bases.
This was the strongest counter by Delhi since Saturday’s claims by Trump on the range of issues and makes clear its discomfiture with Trump wading into India-Pakistan politics and hostilities.
– With PTI from Washington
