Washington:
The US has categorically rejected reports that settlement of the Kashmir issue is a pre-condition set by it for endorsing India's bid for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, saying there is no link between the two.
"I don't see a link between the two," State Department spokesman P J Crowley said at his daily news conference when asked about a media report that claimed that the Obama administration has linked its endorsement of a permanent UN Security Council seat for India with resolving the Kashmir issue.
"We want to see India and Pakistan work collectively together to resolve tensions regarding Kashmir. We understand that India and a number of countries and the United States are all so interested in UN reform, including reforms within the Security Council. Those are conversations which are ongoing with a wide range of countries," Crowley said.
A permanent UNSC seat for India "is an issue that comes up in our ongoing dialogue" with New Delhi, he said. "I can't predict whether it will come up in November (when US President Barack Obama visits India)."
Earlier in the day, visiting National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon said as far India is concerned things are moving in the right direction for it to get a permanent seat at the UN Security Council.
"I think the world's view has evolved, as far as I can see we are heading in the right direction. As far as we are concerned in terms of distance or the gap of the world's attitude towards the UN Security Council reform and what we consider the desirable outcome that gap has steadily narrowed," he said in response to a question at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a Washington-based think-tank.
"And now there is meaningful negotiations going on in the United Nations itself on not just Security Council reform but the reform of the UN itself. That's the real prospects. How the US chooses to do this, when the US chooses to do this, it is for the US to decide. We have made our views know, I do not think, we are shy in a way, they (the US) know what we expect," Menon said.
Earlier this week, India had also rebutted reports that the US had linked a permanent UNSC seat for New Delhi with finding a solution for the Kashmir imbroglio.