US Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden will raise the issue of Kashmir with India if elected in upcoming US election.
According to the US media, Antony Blinken – foreign policy adviser for the Biden’s election campaign said the Biden administration, if elected, will raise the issue of Kashmir with India and would also convey its concerns on a recent Indian law that discriminates against Muslims.
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Blinken was speaking to a dialogue on Thursday afternoon on American foreign policy at the Hudson Institute, Washington, he said that the Trump administration’s Iran strategy had “backfired in a massive way”.
Blinken, who is a former deputy national security adviser and deputy secretary of state, has been tasked with drafting the foreign policy of the Biden campaign. As moderator Walter Russel Mead noted, Blinken’s views have become increasingly important because former vice president Joe Biden’s victory in the November election has moved from “a possibility to a likelihood”.
Pertinent to mention that It was Mead who raised the issue of Kashmir in the conversation, pointing out that India had some serious human rights and democracy issues, particularly with Muslims, in Kashmir and elsewhere.
Blinken said while responding to the moderator, “We obviously have challenges now and real concerns, for example, about some of the actions the Indian government has taken, particularly in cracking down on freedom of movement and freedom of speech in Kashmir, and about some of the laws on citizenship.”
“You are always better in engaging with a partner, and with a vitally important one like India, when you can speak frankly and directly about areas where you have differences, even as you are working to build a greater cooperation,” he added.
Blinken also said that this would be the Biden administration’s approach while discussing Kashmir and other issues with India because “we have seen evidence that it works”.
