Donald Trump recently attended the World Economic Forum meeting at Davos. He came face to face with Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan Niazi, who as usual brought up the matter of Kashmir before him. However, Donald Trump, this time took him for a literal ride and trolled him in the way only he knows best.
Donald Trump had a personal meeting with Pak PM Imran Khan and the exchanged greetings. To quote ANI’s observation about the meeting, “We are going to be talking about trade and many other things. But trade is going to be of very, very paramount importance. And we are doing more trade as it turns. And we are working together on some borders…and we are talking about Kashmir and the relation to what’s going on with Pakistan and India. And if we can help, we certainly will be helping. And we’ve been watching that and following it very, very closely.”
The message is clear – Donald Trump has once again offered to ‘mediate’ on the Kashmir issue. However, this is not the first time that he has made such an offer, as he had offered to ‘mediate’ on the issue several times before. Interestingly, all of the offers have been made in less than a year to be precise.
In July 2019, when Imran Khan had made his first-ever visit to the White House, President Trump had this to say on a direct appeal from Imran Khan over Kashmir issue, “If I can help, I would love to be a mediator. It shouldn’t be — I mean, it’s impossible to believe two incredible countries that are very, very smart, with very smart leadership, can’t solve a problem like that. But if you want me to mediate or arbitrate, I would be willing to do that.”
In other words, Donald Trump had made a sensational claim that PM Narendra Modi had asked him to arbitrate on the Kashmir issue. This provoked a stinging reply from the diplomats in New Delhi, who hotly denied the fact that PM Modi ever invited Trump to mediate, apart from reiterating the fact that India considers Kashmir a bilateral issue, to be resolved by India and Pakistan.
However, Trump was far from being influenced. He consistently made such offers on July 22, August 1, August 26, September 9, September 23, September 25 and now more recently on 21 January. The wordings may have been different, but the approach was the same.
However, it’s not what it looks like. Donald Trump knows very well about the consequences of being friendly with a country like Pakistan. One needs no rocket science to understand how Pakistan gives a free hand to Islamic terrorism in its own backyard. Besides, Donald Trump also see no utility in irking India on the issue of Kashmir. When he first offered to mediate, coupled with the absurd claim of PM Modi asking him to do so, he had received severe backlash. In August, PM Modi had visited France in order to attend the G7 conference, wherein he had bluntly explained that there is no issue of having a third party in any instance on the Kashmir issue.
As such, Donald Trump has only given the lollipop of ‘mediation’ to Imran Khan, yet again. Confirming this, a press release about Donald Trump’s statements at the WEF conference in Davos came out soon, where there was no mention of either Imran Khan Niazi or Kashmir. To sum it up, while PM Modi is a pro when it comes to royally humiliating Imran Khan Niazi, it seems that Donald Trump has started taking lessons from him on the same lines.