Trump 'doesn't make things up', says adviser on Modi's request for Kashmir mediation
Trump adviser responds sternly to "rude question", says US president did not fabricate claim of Modi requesting Kashmir mediation
July 24, 2019
Top White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow has strongly denied that US President Donald Trump "made up" the claim that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked him to mediate with Pakistan on the decades-long Kashmir dispute.
After welcoming Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan at the White House on Monday, the US president had offered to mediate between India and Pakistan on the longstanding Kashmir issue. He said Modi had asked him to mediate on Kashmir when they met in Osaka in Japan on the sidelines of the G20 Summit last month.
India, however, had rejected that their prime minister had made any such request.
When asked by a reporter on Tuesday if Trump had fabricated the claim, Kudlow responded sternly to the "rude question", saying the US president "doesn't make things up".
"The President does not make anything up. That's a very rude question in my opinion," said Kudlow in response to the question.
The US president's adviser declined to elaborate, but said it was a question better suited for Secretary of State Mike Pompeo or national security adviser John Bolton.
"I am going to stay out of that. It's outside of my lane. It's for Mr Bolton, Mr Pompeo and the President, so I am not going to comment on that. The President doesn't make things up," he said.
"While Kashmir is a bilateral issue for both parties to discuss, the Trump administration welcomes #Pakistan and #India sitting down and the United States stands ready to assist," the US State Department had tweeted on Monday following Trump's statement.
But Trump set off a political storm in India with the comments, which touched on one of the most sensitive topics for New Delhi, with India Foreign Minister S Jaishankar issuing a strenuous denial to an infuriated opposition in parliament and insisting that the Kashmir conflict could only be settled bilaterally.
Indian opposition leaders have demanded that Modi make a personal statement to parliament to confirm that there was no change in New Delhi's policy of only direct talks with Islamabad.
