India Reaffirms Unyielding Stand: Talks With Pakistan Only on PoK, Not Kashmir

Ministry of External Affairs reiterates that Jammu and Kashmir is an internal matter and the only outstanding issue is Pakistan vacating illegally occupied territory.

May 13, 2025: India on Tuesday reiterated its firm and unchanged stance on Jammu and Kashmir, asserting that Pakistan must vacate the territory it has illegally occupied and that any discussion with Islamabad will be strictly bilateral—excluding third-party intervention.

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Speaking at a press briefing, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said,

“India’s long-standing national position is that any issues regarding Jammu and Kashmir must be addressed bilaterally between India and Pakistan. And the only outstanding matter is the vacation of illegally occupied territories by Pakistan.”

This strong reaffirmation echoes Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address a day earlier, where he stated unequivocally that “if we ever talk to Pakistan, it will be on terror and PoK only.”

PM Modi, in his first national address following the Operation Sindoor airstrikes, declared that “terror and talks, terror and trade, and terror and water cannot go together,” referencing the government’s recent suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty and visa revocations for Pakistani nationals.

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India’s statement also serves as a direct rejection of US President Donald Trump’s renewed offer to mediate in the Kashmir dispute. Trump, who claimed credit for facilitating the recent India-Pakistan ceasefire, posted that he wished to help solve the “thousand-year-old conflict over Kashmir.”

However, India swiftly dismissed the proposition. “There is no such request,” Mr. Jaiswal clarified, citing a consistent policy of not allowing foreign mediation in internal affairs.

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This echoes India’s earlier response from 2019 when Trump claimed PM Modi had asked him to mediate on Kashmir—a claim New Delhi firmly denied.

“That a nation which has nurtured terrorism on an industrial scale should think it can escape consequences is fooling itself,” Jaiswal added, highlighting India’s growing intolerance for state-sponsored terror under the guise of diplomacy.

India’s message to Pakistan is now clear: the “new normal” established post-Operation Sindoor means any future act of terror will be met with decisive force, and any talks will focus only on dismantling terror infrastructure and the return of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

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India Pakistan relations, Kashmir issue, PoK, Randhir Jaiswal, Operation Sindoor, PM Modi Kashmir speech, Indus Waters Treaty, Donald Trump Kashmir mediation, cross-border terrorism, bilateral talks, OperationSindoor,