US President Donald Trump on Monday said that he would loveto act as a mediator between India and Pakistan over the Kashmir issue. Trump'sstatement came as he met Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan at the White Housefor the first time today.

Trump said that he is ready to help, if the two countriesask.If I can help, I would love to be a mediator," Trump said in hisopening remarks at the Oval Office during his meeting with Khan.

Khan welcomed Trump's remarks and said if the US agrees,prayers of more than a billion people will be with him.India maintains that theKashmir issue is a bilateral one and no third party has any role. India has notbeen engaging with Pakistan since an attack on the Air Force base at Pathankotin January of 2016 by Pakistan-based terrorists, maintaining that talks andterror cannot go together.Khan was accompanied by Army chief General Qamar JavedBajwa, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Lt Gen Faiz Hameed and ForeignMinister Shah Mehmood Qureshi among others.

Early this year, tensions flared up between India andPakistan after a suicide bomber of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Muhammed (JeM) killed40 CRPF personnel in Kashmir's Pulwama district.Amid mounting outrage, theIndian Air Force carried out a counter-terror operation, hitting the biggestJeM training camp in Balakot, deep inside Pakistan on February 26.The next day,Pakistan Air Force retaliated and downed a MiG-21 in an aerial combat andcaptured Indian pilot, who was handed over to India on March 1.