US secretary of state Hillary Clinton on Monday said that the Kashmir issue is an “impediment” in developing a relationship that will be beneficial to both India and Pakistan.
“[The] Kashmir [issue] that have divided India and Pakistan and in my view are impediments to developing a relationship that would be beneficial to both countries (sic),” she told a joint press conference with her Pakistani counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi.
Later in the day, Ms Clinton said: “We can only encourage, we can’t solve (the Kashmir issue) because at the end of the day, this is an issue (to which) there is no dictated response.”
“We continue to encourage, we try to arrange and facilitate but this is going to take a tremendous act of courage by the political leadership in both countries. There is no short-cut around it,” she said.
The US secretary of state said the US would encourage Indo-Pak dialogue as it is in the interest of the two countries.
“I happen to think, on balance, it’s even more in Pakistan’s interests because (it will open markets in India),” she said. —PTI