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Updated: Sep 10, 2019 23:40 IST

Washington: US President Donald Trump on Monday said he is willing to “help” India and Pakistan resolve the Kashmir dispute “if they want”, but did not use words such as “mediate” or “intervene” that he has several times in recent weeks much to the irritation of New Delhi and the elation of Islamabad.

It was not immediately clear what the exact nature of his offer to “help” was, particularly since India describes the Kashmir issue as a purely internal matter while Pakistan has made several attempts to internationalise it.

“I’m willing to help them [India and Pakistan],” Trump told reporters in response to question. “I get along with both countries very well. I’m willing to help if they want.”

He also said that India-Pakistan tensions were a “little bit less heated right now than it was two weeks ago”.

India does not want any help from the US, or from any other third-party, and has let it be known for years that Kashmir and all other disputes with Pakistan can only be resolved bilaterally, and only after Islamabad gives up supporting cross-border terrorism.

Observers said that New Delhi will feel reassured that Trump’s Monday statement appeared to be more in line with the longstanding official position of the United States.

“Help”, the word Trump used on Monday, is closer to the longstanding official position of the United States that has been restated by the State Department and the White House after President’s recent statements offering to “mediate” -- that India and Pakistan must resolve the Kashmir dispute bilaterally through direct dialogue, and the US stands ready to “assist”.

For New Delhi, it has been a torturous crawl from Trump’s first “mediation” offer made on July 22 at a media appearance in the White House with Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan. “If you want me to mediate or arbitrate, I would be willing to do that,” he said, buttressing his offer with a claim that he had been askedto do so even by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Despite a sharp Indian rejection of the offer and a denial of the claim about Modi’s invitation, Trump doubled down on it in an interaction with reporters 10 days later, on August 1 -- four days before India nullified the special status to the state of Jammu and Kashmir and converted it into two Union territories -- J&K and Ladakh.

Later in the month, on August 20, Trump said, addressing a joint news briefing with visiting Romanian President Klaus Iohannis, “I will do the best I can to mediate or do something.”

The American president first acknowledged Indian push back to his offers at a joint news briefing with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 28, on the sidelines of G7 summit in Biarritz, France. The Prime Minister, he said, “really feels he has it under control. I know they speak with Pakistan, and I’m sure that they will be able to do something that will be very good”.

Modi, who may have felt under scrutiny because of Trump’s claims, used the media interaction to clarify his position on the issue unequivocally. Issues between India and Pakistan were bilateral in nature, he said through an interpreter, and “we do not want to give pains to any country in the world -- to, in fact, try to do anything in this, because these issues are bilateral”.