Malaysian PM defends remarks on Kashmir move

NEWDELHI: Days after India asked the Malaysian government to desist from commenting on the Kashmir issue, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad defended his remarks that were critical of India and said he had told Prime Minister Narendra Modi the same thing at their last meeting.

Speaking at the UN General Assembly in September, Mahathir had said that Jammu and Kashmir had been “invaded and occupied”, and that India’s action in the state was “wrong”.

India’s external affairs ministry spokesperson had, on Friday, said the developments in J&K were a “purely internal matter”, and that Malaysia should keep in mind friendly relations between the two countries and “desist from making such remarks”.

Interacting with reporters in the Malaysian Parliament on Tuesday, Mahathir defended his comments on Kashmir and said his remarks were an extension of his conversation with Modi when the two leaders met on the margins of the Eastern Economic Summit in Russia in September, according to reports in the Malaysian media.

Malaysia, he said, was not taking sides. “We must know how to manage this problem... (and) our criticism does not side with anyone.”

India has strongly criticised comments by the leadership of Malaysia and Turkey on the Kashmir issue, which were made after New Delhi revoked Jammu and Kashmir’s special status on August 5 and reorganised the state into two union territories.