US India ambassador’s Kashmir remarks rile Pakistan

ISLAMABAD

U.S. Ambassador to India Sergio Gor talks to media as he arrives to meet Jammu and Kashmir's Chief Minister Omar Abdullah at Abdullah's home in Srinagar, Indian-controlled Kashmir, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026. (AP Photo)

Pakistan summoned Washington’s top envoy in Islamabad and “strongly condemned” remarks by the U.S. ambassador to New Delhi calling disputed Kashmir “an important part of India.”

“[A] strong demarche was lodged over the factually incorrect remarks of U.S. Ambassador to India, regarding the status of Jammu and Kashmir,” Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement late Aug. 19.

“It was underscored that Jammu and Kashmir is an internationally recognized disputed territory.”

The divided Muslim-majority territory has been at the center of bitter rivalry between India and Pakistan since their independence from British rule in 1947.

The U.S. ambassador in New Delhi, Sergio Gor, had told reporters in Srinagar during a trip to Indian-administered Kashmir that “this is an important part of India.”

The latest conflict between the neighbors is over Delhi’s suspension of its involvement in the Indus Waters Treaty, following a deadly attack on tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir in April 2025.

New Delhi blamed Islamabad for backing the attack, which Islamabad denies.

The two countries engaged in intense drone, missile and artillery exchanges the following month that left nearly 70 people dead on both sides.