NEW DELHI – India has responded over the media reports of third partynegotiations on the issue of Occupied Kashmir linked with the reports offormer Norwegian PM visit to Occupied Kashmir.
India has clarified that the visit of former Prime Minister of Norway KjellMagne Bondevik was a private one and “there is no scope for any third partyrole or mediation.
“Remember former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Omar Abdullah hadquestioned the motive of his visit. He had tweeted, “What are theNorwegians up to in Kashmir?” adding “do we have to rely on rumours &conjecture?” to know about the reason of former PM’s visit.
In a written reply to Rajya Sabha, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swarajsaid, “Kjell Magne Bondevik was on a private visit to India at invitationof the Art of Living International Centre (Ved Vigyan Maha Vidya Peeth),Bengaluru,” and “Government of India was not involved in organising thevisit and meetings.”
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Dismissing any reports of any mediation by any party or person, Externalaffairs minister said there is no scope for 3rd party role and “there is nochange in Government’s consistent and principled position that under theSimla Agreement (1972) and as reiterated in the Lahore Declaration (1999),both India and Pakistan are committed to address all outstanding issuesbilaterally.”
The former Prime Minister of Norway visited Jammu & Kashmir on 23 November2018.
