NEW YORK, Feb 23 (APP):The United States is in contact with India and Pakistan about the “very dangerous” situation in Kashmir in an effort to de-escalate the tensions between two countries, President Donald Trump has said.”Right now between Pakistan and India, there is a very, very bad situation. A very dangerous situation. We would like to see it stop.
A lot of people were just killed. We want to see it just stop. We are very much involved in that (process),” Trump told reporters at the White House in Washington, according to an official transcript on the interaction.
The US president was responding to questions about last week’s terrorist attack in Indian occupied Kashmir’s Pulwama district in which 40 Indian security personnel were killed.
India blamed the attack on Pakistan and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi vowed a “befitting” response.
In Islamabad, Prime Minister Imran Khan criticized India for blaming Pakistan for the Pulwama attack, “without any evidence”. He said Pakistan would investigate India’s claims if provided “actionable evidence”.
Trump, after his meeting with a visiting Chinese trade delegation led by Vice Premier Liu He, told reporters that ‘in Kashmir, it’s very dangerous’.
“India is looking at something very strong. And I mean, India just lost almost 50 people with an attack. So, I could understand that also,” he said when an Indian journalist asked about India’s right to self-defence.
“We are talking and a lot of people are talking. But, it is a very, very delicate balance going on right now. There’s a lot of problems between India and Pakistan because of what just happened,” the US President said.
Trump said his administration has developed a much better relationship with Pakistan, even after he stopped US$ 1.3 billion in financial aid to Islamabad.
He said, “I stopped Pakistan, the US $ 1.3 billion that we were paying them. In the meantime, we may set up some meetings with Pakistan.”
“Pakistan was taking very strong advantage of the United States under other presidents and we were paying Pakistan 1.3 billion a year.
I ended that payment to Pakistan because they weren’t helping us in a way that they should have.”
“And honestly, we’ve developed a much better relationship with Pakistan over the last short period of time than we had.”