UNITED NATIONS: United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres has suggested meetings with Indian and Pakistani leaders as a means to facilitate dialogue between the two adversaries over the Kashmir dispute.

At his maiden press conference at the UN headquarters on Tuesday he was asked: “Are you involved in bringing about a dialogue between India and Pakistan to resolve the Kashmir dispute”? The UN chief responded rhetorically “Why do you think I met three times the prime minister of Pakistan and two times the prime minister of India. For someone accused of doing nothing it is quite a number of meetings”.

The spokesman did not allow a follow-up question to the Secretary General. Mr Guteress has met Pakistan’s leader Nawaz Sharif three times and the Indian leader Narendra Modi two times since he took office as the UN chief in January.

Published in Dawn, June 21st, 2017