'At no stage in talks with US ... ': Jaishankar shreds Trump's 'trade' claim; explains ceasefire trigger
NEW DELHI: External affairs minister
S Jaishankar
on Monday shredded US president
Donald Trump
's claim that he used trade as leverage to materialise a "ceasefire" between India and Pakistan.
During the debate on
Operation Sindoor
in Lok Sabha,
Jaishankar
said that "at no stage in any conversation between India and the United States there was linkage with trade".
"At no stage, in any conversation with the United States, was there any linkage with trade and what was going on. There was no call between the Prime Minister and President Trump between April 22, when the President called the PM to convey his sympathy, and June 17, when he called the Prime Minister in Canada to explain why he couldn't meet," Jaishankar said in the Lower House.
"After we retaliated to Pakistan's attack, we got phone calls saying Pakistan was ready to stop; but we told them request has to come from DGMO," Jaishankar told Parliament.
Since May 10, when Trump announced on social media that India and Pakistan had agreed to a full and immediate ceasefire after a long night of talks mediated by Washington, he has repeated his claim on several occasions that he helped settle the tensions between India and Pakistan.
Trump claimed that the understanding came through trade talks that helped ease tensions between the two countries.
Speaking at the White House's Oval Office during a meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Trump had said, "If you take a look at what we just did with Pakistan and India.
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We settled that whole, and I think I settled it through trade."
However, India has been consistently maintaining that the understanding on cessation of hostilities with Pakistan was reached following direct talks between the Directors General of Military Operations (DGMOs) of the two militaries.
In a nearly 35-minute phone call with Trump last month, PM Modi firmly stated that India does not and will "never accept" mediation and that the discussions between Indian and Pakistani militaries on cessation of military actions were initiated at Islamabad's request.
Jaishankar stepped up his attack on the Congress party, saying "people who did nothing have the temerity to question the government which brought down Bahawalpur and Muridke terror sites". The foreign minister was referring to the UPA government's response to the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks.
"Who thought that terror sites in Bahawalpur and Muridke will be brought down the way they were: Jaishankar in Lok Sabha.
Thanks to India's diplomacy, TRF - which owned up Pahalgam attack- designated as global terrorist organisation, " Jaishankar said in Lok Sabha.
India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7, targeting terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK) in retaliation for the Pahalgam attack that killed 26 civilians.
India and Pakistan reached an understanding on May 10 to end the conflict after four days of intense cross-border drone and missile strikes.
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