NEW DELHI — Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi never asked U.S. President Donald Trump to help mediate with Pakistan in their dispute over the Kashmir region, the government said on Tuesday, after Trump’s comments set off a storm of criticism.
Trump told reporters on Monday that Modi had asked him during a meeting in Japan last month if he would like to be a mediator on Kashmir. The territory is at the heart of decades of hostility between India and Pakistan.
Trump was speaking at the White House just before holding talks with Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan. Khan welcomed the U.S. effort to intercede, saying he would carry the hopes of more than a billion people in the region.
But the comments triggered a political storm in India, which has long bristled at any suggestion of third-party involvement in tackling Kashmir, a Muslim-majority region that it considers an integral part of the country.
