WASHINGTON: The United States State Department has clarified that there has been no change in America’s Kashmir policy and Washington still considers Jammu and Kashmir as a disputed territory.

The clarification, given at a news briefing, followed a string of statements by US President Joe Biden and senior officials of his administration, outlining their policies towards the South and Central Asian regions.

“I want to be very clear, there has been no change in US policy in the region,” said State Department spokesperson Ned Price when reminded at a briefing that a tweet the department posted did not mention the region’s disputed status.

“Is this a change in policy? Does the State no longer recognise Jammu and Kashmir as a disputed territory? Is there some sort of change in position that we need to know?” asked a journalist while referring to the tweet.

The journalists attending the briefing noticed this omission and asked the spokesperson to clarify the department’s position who said the US still considered Jammu and Kashmir a disputed region.

At the State Department briefing today, journalists also asked the US official to comment on Twitter’s decision to block over 500 accounts after the Indian government accused them of making inflammatory remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“I would say generally that around the world we are committed to supporting democratic values, including freedom of expression,” Price said. “When it comes to Twitter’s policies, we’d have to refer you to Twitter itself.” NNI