US President Donald Trump on Wednesday insisted that India and Pakistan have to work out their differences while repeating his offer to mediate or arbitrate between the two nuclear-powered countries despite New Delhi making it clear time and again that there is no room for mediation.

“You look at the two gentlemen heading those two countries — two good friends of mine — I said, ‘Fellas, work it out. Just work it out’. Those are two nuclear countries. They’ve got to work it out,” Trump told reporters on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) over the past three days.

Trump had met both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Pakistan’s Imran Khan.

Trump said Kashmir had come up in his discussions with both Modi and Khan. “And whatever help I can be, I said — I offered, whether it’s arbitration or mediation, or whatever it has to be, I’ll do whatever I can. Because they’re at very serious odds right now, and hopefully that’ll get better,” Trump said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the Vijay Sankalp Rally in Nashik on September 19, 2019. (PTI)

This was the second time in two days that Trump had brought up mediation, the earlier instance coming after his bilateral meeting with Khan on the sidelines of the UNGA.

What was new this time, however, was the insistence that India and Pakistan have to “work it out’’.

There was no immediate official response to the more-than-gentle prodding from Trump to get to the negotiating table, which is what Pakistan wants and India has refused to engage in. New Delhi has been contending that talks and terror cannot go hand in hand.

Imran Khan at the military parade to mark Pakistan National Day in Islamabad. Trump had met both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Pakistan’s Imran Khan. (AP)

After Trump made a more subtle push for talks on Tuesday during his bilateral with Modi, foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale had said: “The Prime Minister explained that we have never shied away from talking to Pakistan. However, we expect that overtures made by the Prime Minister ought to have been reciprocated.”

He added: “But none have been reciprocated, beginning with the invitation to the Prime Minister’s oath-taking in 2014 and his unique trip to Lahore with minimum security after which immediately there was an attack on our airbase in Pathankot.’’

On the issue of mediation raised by Trump again, official spokesperson Raveesh Kumar told journalists in New York on Wednesday: “This does not change India’s position. The Kashmir issue has a dimension of terrorism and this is how we look at it.”