With Foreign Office spokesperson Shafqat Ali Khan stating that Pakistan is open to receiving help from the United States or any other nation in settling the protracted war, Pakistan has underlined its openness to foreign mediation on the Kashmir dispute.
During his weekly media briefing on Friday, August 8, 2025, he expressed this diplomatic stance against the backdrop of increased tensions with India after a short but fierce military conflict in May.
Khan emphasized Pakistan’s openness to international intervention when asked about Washington’s interest in the Kashmir issue. “About the US’ interest in settlement of the Kashmir issue, we welcome help not only from the US but any country which can help stabilise the situation and move towards resolution of the Kashmir dispute, which is at the heart of issues of peace and security in South Asia,” he said. Given the lack of bilateral talks between the two nuclear-armed neighbors, this is a consistent expression of Pakistan’s long-standing stance in favor of third-party engagement in the resolution of the Kashmir dispute.
The spokesperson went on to explain Pakistan’s diplomatic strategy, stating that “it is the Indian side which has to make up its mind” on engagement even if Islamabad is still dedicated to the diplomatic route. Khan affirmed that other from standard diplomatic exchanges, there have been no meaningful interactions between the two nations since their four-day battle in May.
Citing the 1972 Simla Agreement as the fundamental agreement guiding bilateral relations, India continues to adamantly refuse any outside mediation on the Kashmir dispute. The deal essentially forbids third-party mediation by clearly committing both nations to settling all disagreements, including those involving Kashmir, through bilateral talks alone. India’s External Affairs Ministry has repeatedly stated that any discussions with Pakistan will only be about terrorism and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
Based on past experiences with UN resolutions and mediation initiatives that New Delhi believes have exacerbated rather than resolved the dispute, this stance underscores India’s long-standing worries about foreign meddling. India emphasizes the agreement’s bi-lateralism concept by regularly using the Simla framework to reject international mediation.
The May 2025 India-Pakistan confrontation, the most significant military escalation between the two nations since the Kargil War, casts a shadow over the current diplomatic situation. The crisis started on April 22, 2025, when terrorists from The Resistance Front (TRF), a branch of Lashkar-e-Taiba, massacred 26 tourists in the Pahalgam terrorist attack. The Indus Waters Treaty and other bilateral accords were suspended when India accused Pakistan of aiding the attack.
India began Operation Sindoor on May 7, 2025, using precision missiles to hit nine targets in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir that it claimed were terrorist infrastructure. The assault avoided Pakistani military or civilian objectives and killed some 100 militants, according to Indian sources. Operation Bunyan-un-Marsoos, Pakistan’s response, sparked four days of cross-border combat with fighter jets, missiles, and drones—the first drone conflict between the two nuclear-armed countries.
A truce mediated by Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) hotline communications brought the conflict to an end on May 10, 2025. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and U.S. Vice President JD Vance served as mediators during the negotiations.
Pakistan’s diplomatic approach is both consistent and flexible, as evidenced by its increasing emphasis on accepting international mediation. Although Pakistan has always supported third-party intervention since the beginning of the conflict, its present stance takes into account the shifting regional dynamics in the wake of the May conflict as well as the larger strategic landscape. This statement’s timing, which comes before rumored high-level Pakistani military visits to Washington, points to a concerted diplomatic effort to win over other countries.
One of the biggest barriers to conflict settlement is still the diplomatic disagreement between India and Pakistan about mediation. Given the lack of trust between the two nations, Pakistan sees international intervention as crucial, but India sees it as a breach of bilateral agreements and possibly detrimental to long-term peace. The Kashmir conflict will continue to pose a threat to regional stability and global diplomatic efforts in South Asia because of this basic divergence.
