By Kavita Mistry 
The U.K. and U.S. have been working together to make permanent the ceasefire between India and Pakistan following the recent round of hostilities, according to U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy. New Delhi and Islamabad engaged in rounds of armed conflict following the April 22 terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam , in which 26 civilians were killed.
“We will continue to work with the United States to ensure that we get an enduring ceasefire, to ensure that dialogue is happening and to work through with Pakistan and India how we can get to confidence and confidence-building measures between the two sides,” Mr. Lammy told Reuters in Islamabad at the end of his two-day visit to Pakistan.
Mr Lammy’s remarks, which imply that the U.K. and U.S. are involved in the Kashmir issue, echo U.S. President Donald Trump’s repeated messaging that his administration was instrumental in brokering a May 10 ceasefire between New Delhi and Islamabad.
The Labour Party been engaged in a resetting of ties with India and British Indians, walking back previous positions on Kashmir. In 2020, months after the Modi government mooted legal and administrative changes to Article 370 and Jammu and Kashmir, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer (who was then the country’s Leader of the Opposition) had said Kashmir was a “bilateral issue for India and Pakistan to resolve peacefully”.
The Hindu reached out to the U.K. Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) for confirmation of the U.K. government’s position on Kashmir and the nature of U.K.- U.S. coordination on the recent ceasefire.
Indian government officials had said that Mr Lammy would not visit New Delhi immediately after visiting Islamabad, given India’s strong emphasis of de-hyphenation from Pakistan.
Mr Lammy had spoken with External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on May 15 and he is expected to visit New Delhi “soon” according to a statement from the FCDO published on Friday.
Published – May 17, 2025 02:10 pm IST