UN chief to contact Indian and Pakistani premiers on Kashmir in due course: Spokesman

NEW YORK: The new UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, has not had an opportunity so far to speak to prime ministers of India and Pakistan about the Kashmir dispute between the two South Asian neighbours, but that does not mean any lack of interest on his part to help resolve it, his spokesman said Thursday.

Responding to a question at the regular noon briefing, Spokesman Stephane Dujarric said that since Guterres assumed on January 1, he had spoken to a number of government leaders around the world, but he has not been able to talk to the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Muhammad Nawaz Sharif on the "issues around Kashmir." 

On January 6, the secretary-general offered to play a role of an honest broker between Pakistan and India amid escalating tensions between the two countries.

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