The United States has assured Pakistan that its position on Kashmir has not changed, and that Washington still regards the region as a disputed territory whose future must be settled between Pakistan and India, Dawn reported, citing diplomatic sources.
US officials told their Pakistani counterparts there had been “no change in our position”, according to the sources.
The remark that caused the concern
The assurance came after comments by the US Ambassador to India, Sergio Gor, during a visit to Srinagar on August 19. Meeting Omar Abdullah, who heads the government in India-held Kashmir, Gor described the territory as “an important part of India”.
He also said Washington was reviewing its “Do not travel” advisory for the region, citing what he called improvements in the security situation.
The remarks caused alarm in Islamabad. Pakistan protested and summoned the US chargé d’affaires, saying the ambassador’s words were inconsistent with the longstanding US position and with the relevant UN Security Council resolutions. Pakistan then asked Washington directly whether the comments signalled a shift in policy.
Trump’s offer to mediate
Pakistani sources also pointed to President Donald Trump’s earlier offer to help resolve the Kashmir dispute. That offer, they said, showed that Washington itself sees the issue as unresolved. India has always rejected any outside mediation, insisting the matter is purely bilateral.
“The dispute cannot be treated as settled”
The issue came up during a media interaction in Washington with Rana Muhammad Qasim Noon, chairman of Pakistan’s Parliamentary Committee on Kashmir, and Pakistan’s Ambassador to the US, Rizwan Saeed Sheikh.
Noon reaffirmed Pakistan’s political, diplomatic and moral support for the Kashmiri people, and said lasting peace in South Asia could not be achieved without resolving the dispute in line with UN Security Council resolutions. The dispute, he said, could not be treated as settled.
He urged the world to pay closer attention to reported human rights violations in India-held Kashmir, citing:
- Disappearances of Kashmiri people
- Detentions without due process
- Demographic changes in the region
- Efforts to alter Kashmir’s political and cultural identity
Noon also warned that the presence of three nuclear-armed states in the region made it all the more important to resolve disputes peacefully.
Ambassador Sheikh said Kashmir remained part of the international and UN framework, and that its peaceful resolution was essential to regional and global peace. The embassy later issued a statement setting out these positions.
“Pakistanis first”
On Wednesday, the Chief Justice of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Supreme Court, Raja Saeed Akram Khan, spoke of the bond between Pakistan and Kashmir at a reception held in his honour by the Supreme Court Bar Association of Pakistan.
“We are Pakistanis first and then Kashmiris,” he said, The Express Tribune reported. He added that the late Kashmiri leader Syed Ali Gilani’s slogan, “We are Pakistanis, Pakistan is ours”, reflected the feeling of every Kashmiri. He noted that people from Azad Kashmir serve Pakistan in the armed forces, the bureaucracy, the judiciary and many other fields.
A tense backdrop
The US assurance comes as relations between Pakistan and India remain frozen after the military conflict of May 2025, and as Pakistan takes its dispute with India over the Indus Waters Treaty to the UN Security Council. Pakistan has repeatedly said that Kashmir is the “core dispute” between the two countries.
Why it matters
Washington’s view carries weight in any future diplomacy over Kashmir. A clear US statement that the region remains disputed supports Pakistan’s long-held position that Kashmir’s future must be decided in line with UN resolutions and the wishes of the Kashmiri people, and not settled by India’s unilateral actions. Read our reports on Pakistan’s letter to the UN over the Indus Waters Treaty and on Tarar’s warning that India cannot weaponise water.
This article draws on reporting by Dawn and The Express Tribune.
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