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Nobel Peace in mind, Trump wants to mediate between India, China

Trump is taking his Nobel Peace Prize nomination seriously - although it is only one of scores that the Norwegian committee receives

Friday September 25, 2020 9:21 AM, Arul Louis, IANS

New York: With eye on Nobel Peace Prize, United States President Donald Trump wants to mediate the dispute between India and China, even though his offers have been turned down.

Asked by a reporter on Thursday about his nomination for the prize for promoting Israel-Arab relations, he said, "I know that China now, and India, are having difficulty, and very -- very substantial difficulty. And hopefully they'll be able to work that out. If we can help, we'd love to help."

Trump was nominated by a member of Norwegian Parliament mainly for helping the United Arab Emirtes and Israel establish diplomatic relations, a breakthrough in lowering hostilities in the Middle East.

Trump said, "It was an honour to be nominated for two Nobel Prizes. So that was an honour. And we'll see what's happening."

Trump's Foreign Policy

As part of the question about his nomination, the reporter also asked, "Does your global foreign policy also checkmate China? It stops them from increasing the defence of China globally?"

Instead of answering it directly, Trump veered off into the offer of help to India and China.

Both countries had turned down an earlier offer he made in May to mediate between them.

The Norwegian MP, Christian Tybring-Gjedde, also made a claim in his nomination letter that Nobel Committee that Trump played "key role in facilitating contact between conflicting parties and a creating new dynamics in other protracted conflicts, such as the Kashmir border dispute between India and Pakistan," according to Fox News.

India unwilling

However, India has turned down Trump's repeated offers to mediate or "arbitrate" the Kashmir dispute and there have been no high-level bilateral contacts between the two countries since 2015.

After the UAE breakthrough, Trump administration's diplomacy got Bahrain to set up diplomatic ties with Israel.

US Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Kelly Craft has said in an interview to Al Arabiya this week that more Arab countries are expected to normalise relations with Israel soon.

Trump is taking his Nobel Peace Prize nomination seriously - although it is only one of scores that the Norwegian committee receives - and compares it to the prize that his predecessor Brack Obama actually received.

He criticised TV channels for not running his nomination in their main newscasts.

(Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in and followed on Twitter at @arulouis)

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