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France presses India, Pakistan for dialogue over Kashmir

23 August 2019
10727
2019-08-23 12:49

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday that France's concern is to preserve stability in the region, between India and Pakistan. At a joint news conference with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Macron added that he would reach out to the Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan in the coming days to discuss the matter.

Macron and Modi met at the gilded Chantilly palace, near the French capital, ahead of a G7 summit in southwestern France that will start on August 24. Modi is facing criticism after his government removed Muslim majority Kashmir's special status under which people from the rest of India could not buy property or compete for government jobs and college places. Hundreds of political leaders and activists, many of them separatists seeking Kashmir's secession from India, have been imprisoned and separatist leaders in Indian Kashmir are now urging people to defy a ban and join a mass march after Friday prayers.

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