3rd party intervention to negotiate or settle India’s matters uncalled-for: CPI-M

CPI-M General Secretary M.A. Baby on Sunday said that third party intervention to negotiate or settle India's any matters and problems is uncalled for. Reacting to reports that US President Donald Trump had played a role in facilitating the "understanding" between India and Pakistan and his (Trump’s) 'keenness' to mediate on Kashmir issue, the CPI-M leader questioned the necessity of foreign intervention in bilateral matters.

“Bilateral matters and issues must be discussed bilaterally and sorted out bilaterally, not taking the recourse to military solutions. This is our party’s long standing position and approach,” the Left leader told the media.

He said that the government of India also used to maintain the position that internationalising of India’s domestic problems or the country’s issues with the neighbours was unacceptable.

“We would deal with the issues with the neighbours in a mutually agreeable manner to negotiate. The de-escalation issue is taking place at different levels. So the government of India has to explain why and how the US President announced first about the ceasefire between India and Pakistan,” Baby asked.

The US Vice-President (J.D. Vance) earlier said that his country would not mediate the India-Pakistan issues and USA wants to settle their issues between the countries, the CPI-M leader said.

The Left leader said that U.S. President (Donald Trump) not only changes the country’s Vice-President’s stand but he is not behaving like a US President he is acting like a President of the world, which is unacceptable.

He said that India’s Foreign Secretary (Vikram Misri) informed the country that the Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) of Pakistan called India’s DGMO and communicated that his country (Pakistan) is willing for a "ceasefire" and later it was accepted.

“There are discrepancies between our Foreign Secretary’s announcement and the US President’s claim. Now we expect that the government would clarify the matter as to how this confusion arises,” Baby said.

He said that India and Pakistan are capable of resolving their issues through direct dialogue, "why should a third party, particularly the U.S. President, need to step in?"

The CPI-M leader emphasised the importance of maintaining strategic autonomy in foreign policy and urged the Indian government to uphold its long-standing position of bilateral engagement without external mediation.

After becoming the CPI-M’s General Secretary in the 24th party Congress, held in Madurai (Tamil Nadu), Baby for the first time came to Tripura and attended the party’s one day state Conference on Sunday.