By IANS,
Kolkata : India Saturday asserted that Kashmir was a bilateral India-Pakistan issue and needed to be resolved under the Simla agreement and the Lahore treaty between the two neighbours.
“Essentially, it has been stated that it (Kashmir) is a bilateral issue between India and Pakistan,” External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said on the sidelines of a function here.
Mukherjee was responding to reporters’ queries on US president-elect Barack Obama reportedly mulling appointment of former US president Bill Clinton as a special envoy on Kashmir.
“The problem needed to be solved under the Simla agreement and the Lahore pact signed later,” Mukherjee said.
He also referred to the series of discussions between the two nations within the framework of a composite dialogue on the Kashmir issue.
Mukherjee sidestepped a query on Obama being opposed to outsourcing by US companies, saying it was an internal matter of that nation.
“We will comment on it when the need arises,” he added.
Mukherjee was here to attend the curtainraiser to the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) summit 2008.