If elected, Biden will raise Kashmir issue with India, says his foreign policy advisor

Washington: Democrat president nominee in US, Joe Biden will raise the issue of Kashmir with India and would also convey its concerns on Citizenship Amendment Act if he is elected president, says the Biden campaign’s foreign policy adviser, Antony John Blinken

In a recent afternoon dialogue on American foreign policy at the Hudson Institute, Washington, Blinken said has been tasked with drafting the foreign policy of the Biden campaign.

Blinken is a former deputy national security adviser and deputy secretary of state.

As moderator famous US Academic, Walter Russel Mead, noted that Blinken’s views have become increasingly important because former vice president Joe Biden’s victory in the November election has moved from “a possibility to a likelihood”.

It was Mead who raised the issue of Kashmir in the conversation, pointing out that India had “some human rights and democracy issues, particularly with Muslims, in Kashmir and elsewhere”.

“We obviously have challenges now and real concerns, for example, about some of the actions the Indian government has taken, particularly in cracking down on freedom of movement and freedom of speech in Kashmir, and about some of the laws on citizenship,” said Blinken while responding to Mead.

Blinken declared that concerns on recent Indian law (Citizenship Amendment Act) will also be conveyed to Delhi

“You are always better in engaging with a partner, and with a vitally important one like India, when you can speak frankly and directly about areas where you have differences, even as you are working to build a greater cooperation,” he added.

Blinken said that this would be the Biden administration’s approach while discussing Kashmir and other issues with India because “we have seen evidence that it works”.

Mead noted that while India was a democracy, “it has somewhat a different view of what that might mean than we do”.