Obama and Kashmir (Daily Times, PAKISTAN)

If Obama tries to force things on India, it would negatively impact Indo-US relations which, given the importance that India currently enjoys in American strategic thinking, the US simply cannot afford

When then-Senator Barack Obama linked peace in Afghanistan with the settlement of the Kashmir dispute, the Pakistani and Kashmiri leadership welcomed it. The Indian government, on the other hand, was quite upset, though it put up a brave face by dismissing the statement as a “pre-election rhetoric that deserved to be ignored”.

However, following Obama’s election as president, and the media speculation that he was thinking of appointing former President Bill Clinton as special envoy on Kashmir, India got worried and directed the Indian delegation, which was leaving for the UN General Assembly, to apprise Obama’s aides about the state of the ongoing peace process between the two countries and the futility of the American initiative.

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