British Prime Minister Theresa May is non-committal on whether she would raise the knotty issue of India-occupied Kashmir (IoK) during her visit to India next month and believes that it is for India and Pakistan to sort out the problem that has been hanging fire for long.
Answering questions in the House of Commons in London during the weekly Prime Minister’s Questions Time on Wedenesday (Oct 26), she clarified that the UK’s stand on Kashmir remained unchanged and it was a bilateral issue between the two neighbouring countries.
Replying to Pakistani-born Labour MP Yasmin Qureshi, May said that she took the same view as this government had since it came into power.
“I take the same view as this govt has and since I came into power and previously that the issue of Kashmir is a matter for India and Pakistan to deal with and sort out. She said that the Foreign Secretary (Boris Johnson) has heard Yasmin Qureshi’s representations and she was sure that he will be taking up these issues with her.
Qureshi, who represents a heavily Pakistani-origin constituency of Bolton in north-west England, had asked in parliament: “Will the Prime Minister meet with me and cross-party colleagues to discuss the human rights abuses and the issue of self-determination for Kashmiri people, as was set out in the resolution of the UN in 1948 and can she raise this issue with the Indian Prime Minister.”
The British PM is scheduled to arrive in New Delhi on November 6 for her first overseas bilateral visit outside Europe. Besides inaugurating the India-UK Tech Summit alongside Indian Prime Ministere Narendra Modi, she will be holding talks with the latter before heading to Bengaluru.
May will be accompanied by a business delegation comprising small and medium enterprises from across the UK and her international trade minister, Liam Fox.
