External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has refuted US President Donald Trump’s claims that he used trade to force India and Pakistan to accept a ceasefire after tensions escalated between the two nations following India’s Operation Sindoor. Jaishankar said he was present when Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US Vice President JD Vance held a telephonic conversation on the night of May 9.
During the fireside chat with Newsweek, Jaishankar stated that Vance had told PM Modi that Pakistan would launch a massive assault on India if they did not accept certain things. According to him, PM Modi during the call indicated that there would be a response from India. Jaishankar confirmed that Pakistan launched a massive attack on that night, to which India responded quickly. He stated that he received a call from US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called him the next day and expressed Pakistan’s willingness to hold talks.
When asked about 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 for many years it’s not a position just of this government in Delhi, I mean it’s been a national consensus that our dealings with Pakistan are bilateral and in this particular case, I can tell you that when I was in the room when Vice President Vance spoke to Prime Minister Modi on the night of 9th May saying that you know the Pakistanis would launch a very massive assault on India if we did not accept certain things and 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 this was the night before. 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 10, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri stated that Pakistan’s Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) had called the Indian counterpart, and it was agreed between them that both sides would cease all firing and military action on land, in the air, and at sea.
The conflict between India and Pakistan saw a significant escalation in military action as Pakistan responded to India’s Operation Sindoor by launching drones. India repelled Pakistani aggression and pounded its airbases. Operation Sindoor was launched by the Indian Armed Forces on May 7, targeting nine terror sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied-Kashmir in response to a terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam on April 22, in which 26 people were killed.
