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Updated: Sep 27, 2019 00:26 IST

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he is willing to arbitrate or mediate the Kashmir dispute as India and Pakistan, two nuclear armed states, remained “at very serious odds” and that during his meetings with their leaders earlier in the week, he told them, “fellas, work it out”.

Addressing a customary news briefing marking the end of his three-day UNGA participation, Trump said Kashmir was discussed at the meeting and “I offered, whether it’s arbitration or mediation, or whatever it has to be, I’ll do whatever I can”.

“Because they’re at very serious odds right now, and hopefully that’ll get better.”

Describing Modi and Khan as “good friends of mine”, the US President said that he told them “‘Fellas, work it out. Just work it out.’ Those are two nuclear countries. They’ve got to work it out.”

India maintains that Kashmir is a bilateral issue with Pakistan and no third party has any role in it. Prime Minister Modi has also categorically rejected any scope for third party mediation between India and Pakistan on Kashmir.

Tensions between the two countries have spiked after India ended the special status of Jammu and Kashmir on August 5. The revocation of Article 370 of the Constitution has evoked strong reactions from Islamabad, which downgraded ties and expelled the Indian ambassador.

Trump met Pakistan PM Imran Khan for a bilateral meeting on Monday and PM Modi on Tuesday, with the US President appearing to have pushed for the two countries to resolve their differences bilaterally, without inserting himself as an arbitrator or a mediator.

But in another reversal, which diplomats and foreign officials dealing with him have often come to expect, he has put himself back in the mix.

Asked to comment on Trump’s latest remarks, external affairs ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said India’s position is “very clear”.

“I think it has been articulated by the prime minister earlier. It was articulated yesterday (Tuesday) by the foreign secretary so that position remains,” Kumar told reporters at a briefing in New York.

Foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale told reporters after the Modi-Trump meeting on Tuesday that the prime minister “made it clear that we are not shying away from talks with Pakistan”.

“But for that to happen, we expect some concrete steps to be taken by Pakistan. And we do not find any effort by Pakistan taking those steps,” the top Indian diplomat had added.

“All the issues between India and Pakistan are of bilateral in nature, and we don’t want to trouble any third country. We can discuss and resolve these issues bilaterally,” Modi had said on the sidelines of the G-7 summit in the French city of Biarritz, ahead of his bilateral meeting with Trump last month.

Hitting out at Pakistan on Wednesday, external affairs minister S Jaishankar also said India cannot talk to a “very challenging” neighbour that conducts terrorism as a legitimate tool of statecraft to put pressure on New Delhi to come to the negotiating table, and follows a policy of “implausible deniability”.

Addressing an event at leading think tank Council on Foreign Relations in New York, Jaishankar was asked about Kashmir and how he looks to manage New Delhi’s relationship with Islamabad.

“Well you used two key words and I would like to begin by differentiating that. One was Kashmir and other was Pakistan. And I’ll tell you why I do that. I don’t think that the fundamental issue between India and Pakistan is Kashmir. I think it’s part of the issues between us,” he said.

Jaishankar said the issue for India was not whether it talks to Pakistan, but how it can talk to a country that sponsors terrorism.

India has made an end to Pakistan’s use of terrorism as a pre-condition for talks, and the Imran Khan government has given no such assurances yet, even as at it has sought to portray itself as an aggrieved party whose overtures for talks have been repeatedly rebuffed by India.

President Trump had first made an offer to mediate after a meeting with Prime Minister Imran Khan in July. India has repeatedly maintained that Kashmir is an internal issue and that any talks over the issue will be held bilaterally without external mediation.

On Wednesday, Trump brought up Kashmir and his offer to mediate unprompted, for the first time, in his scripted opening remarks for the news conference. But he did conclude the conference by saying he had asked the two countries to sort it out among themselves.

(With inputs from agencies)