Not seeking to broker Indo-Pak converstion on Kashmir : US
Washington: The Obama Administration is not seeking to broker talks between India and Pakistan on the Kashmir issue, a top American official has said, as Secretary of State John Kerry landed in Islamabad for full range of talks during which he is expected to bring it up.
“I think that the great strides in normalization on the economic side have been very important the last few years and have really paved the way for better and more constructive conversations on the political side. So we’ll see where that continues to lead,” he said.
Kerry during his June trip to India called on the Indians to continue that process of facilitation, as well as the Pakistanis to do things like provide most favored nation (MFN) status to the Indians, the official said.
“I’m sure that that will be part of the conversations that we continue to have. But we are external actors in this. We are in no way seeking to broker any sort of conversation on Kashmir,” the senior administration official asserted.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif-led government, the official said, has already begun the outreach to India and with good cooperation on the Indian side as well in trying to jumpstart the normalization process.
