New Delhi: External affairs minister S Jaishankar has reiterated that the US had no role to play in India’s cessation of operations against Pakistan during Operation Sindoor.
This is yet another rebuttal to US president Donald Trump’s claims that he used trade to force India and Pakistan to accept a ceasefire. Jaishankar told Newsweek that he was present when Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US vice president J D Vance held a telephonic conversation on the night of May 9.
According to him, had told PM Modi that Pakistan would launch a massive assault on India if they did not accept certain things. Jaishankar said that Modi indicated during the call that there would be a response from India if Pakistan did so.
The external affairs minister confirmed that Pakistan launched a massive attack on that night (at military and civilian targets with missiles and drones that were intercepted), to which India responded quickly. He also said that he received a call from US secretary of state Marco Rubio the next day with a message that Pakistan is willing to hold talks.
When asked whether Trump’s claims of using trade as a means of resolving the India-Pakistan conflict have affected trade negotiations, Jaishankar said: ” No, I don’t think so. I think the trade people are doing what the trade people should be doing, which is negotiating with numbers and lines and products and making their tradeoffs. I think they’re very professional and very focused about it.”
“In terms of what has been our position. Yes, we have had one for many years. it’s not a position just of this government in Delhi. I mean that it’s been a national consensus that our dealings with Pakistan are bilateral and in this particular case, I can tell you that I was in the room when vice president Vance spoke to Prime Minister Modi on the night of May 9th, saying that the Pakistanis would launch a very massive assault on India if we did not accept certain things. The Prime Minister was impervious to what the Pakistanis were threatening to do. On the contrary, he (PM Modi) indicated that there would be a response from us. Something the Pakistanis did was attack us massively that night. We responded very quickly thereafter, and the next morning, Mr Rubio called me up and said the Pakistanis were ready to talk. So, I can only tell you from my personal experience what happened,” he added.
Despite India’s denials, Trump has repeatedly claimed to have brokered peace between India and Pakistan after India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7.
India has maintained that after its missiles caused severe damage to Pakistani air bases in the early hours of May 10, Pakistan sought Director General of Military Operations (DGMO)-level talks. India did not agree to any formal ceasefire but assured that it would not carry out any further strike if Pakistan abstained from firing. India has, since then, called this ‘Cessation of Firing’.
Operation Sindoor was launched by the Indian Armed Forces in response to the terror strike in Pahalgam on April 22 that claimed the lives of 26 persons, mainly tourists from across the country.
