Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) is a part of India and New Delhi expects to have physical jurisdiction over it one day, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Tuesday.
“Our position has, is and will always be very clear on PoK, that it is part of India and we expect one day we will have physical jurisdiction over it,” he told reporters.
The government has maintained that henceforth talks with Pakistan would be only about PoK and not on Kashmir.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu have made statements in this regard in the recent past after Pakistan sought to internationalise the Kashmir issue.
Indo-US relations
Indo-US relations have been on an upward trajectory and they are in a very good health, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Tuesday.
Addressing the 100-day press conference of the Ministry of External Affairs, he said the “trajectory” of the relationship between India and the US has been “upwards” amid various administrations in Washington, be it Bush, Obama and now Trump.
Responding to a question on commerce, he said the trade problem between the two countries is “normal”.
“As relationship grows, there will be problems … the only way you don’t have trade problems is when you do not trade,” he said referring to the trade relations between the two nations.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be on a six-day visit to the US, beginning September 22.
Jaishankar said in partnership with the Indian diaspora, Modi addressed events in San Jose in 2015 and Madison Square in New York in 2014, and the September 22 event at Houston will be the third.
He said the Indo-US relations are in very good health.
“There is no facet of the relationship today which has not gone upward over the period of 20 years,” he said.
Referring to the decision of US President Donald Trump to attend the ‘Howdy Modi’ event, Jaishankar said, “I regard this as a great achievement of the Indo-US community.”
“If you have someone like the President (of the US) coming there, this shows where the community has reached, how it is regarded in the US … it is a matter of great honour and we will welcome him (Trump) in the warmest possible manner,” he said.
Responding to a question on the message the presence of Trump at the Modi event will send to Pakistan, he said it is up to Islamabad to read.
