NEW DELHI: US President Donald Trump, in a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday, “encouraged him to improve ties with Pakistan and fulfil his promise to better the lives of the Kashmiri people,” the White House said in a statement after the meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
“The President encouraged Prime Minister Modi to improve relations with Pakistan and fulfil his promise to better the lives of the Kashmiri people,” said the White House readout of the meeting.
“Finally, both leaders expressed concerns about the situation in Afghanistan and shared ideas about how to work together to promote security and prosperity in the country.”
The White House said the two leaders also discussed progress on different aspects of their strategic partnership and upcoming opportunities to make sure it remains strong.
“The President reaffirmed the importance of greatly increasing trade between the United States and India, and highlighted the need for resolving barriers to free, fair, and reciprocal trade, which includes improving United States companies’ market access in India. The President noted good progress on defence and security coöperation.” India said it is not “shying away” from talks with Pakistan, but for that it expects Islamabad to take concrete steps, which has not happened. “PM made clear that we are not shying away from talks with Pakistan, but for that to happen we expect some concrete steps to happen and we do not find any effort by Pakistan in taking those steps,” Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale told reporters.
“The PM underscored that 42,000 lives have been lost to terror attacks in the last 30 years, and that it is incumbent on the international community to join to fight the scourge. The PM also mentioned that globally from a number of developed countries, a significant number of foreign fighters, have participated in terror activities globally,” Mr Gokhale said.