Jaishankar refutes Trump's India-Pakistan ceasefire claims: ‘Was in the room when JD Vance spoke to PM Modi…'

Mint

7 hours ago

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has refuted Donald Trump's claim that he secured a ceasefire between India and Pakistan using trade negotiations, and dismissed rumours that the conflict affected India-US trade relations, PTI reported. He was speaking to Newsweek in Manhattan on June 30.
Jaishankar is on an official visit to the US and will travel to Washington DC to participate in the Quad Foreign Ministers' Meeting on July 1 (today).
After the interview, answering a question about Donald Trump's ceasefire claim and whether there was any negative impact on India-US trade, Jaishankar said, 'No, I don't think so.'
"I think the trade people are doing what the trade people should be doing, which is negotiate with numbers and lines and products and do their trade-offs. I think they are very professional and very, very focused about it,' he added.
Jaishankar further said that there is a national consensus in India that 'our dealings with Pakistan are bilateral'.
Recounting the event as he saw it unfold on then, Jaishakar shared, 'And in this particular case, I can tell you that I was in the room when Vice President (JD) Vance spoke to Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi on the night of May 9, 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 indicated that there would be a response from us. This was the night before and the Pakistanis did attack us massively that night, we responded very quickly thereafter,' he said.
'And the next morning, Mr (Secretary of State Marco) Rubio called me up and said the Pakistanis were ready to talk. So I can only tell you from my personal experience what happened. The rest I leave to you,' he added.
On the Pahalgam terror attack, Jaishankar asserted that it was an act of economic warfare meant to destroy tourism in Kashmir, and stressed that India will not allow nuclear blackmail to prevent it from responding to terror emanating from Pakistan.
'India has had a string of terrorist attacks over the years emanating from Pakistan and in the wake of the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack, there was a sentiment in the country that 'enough is enough',' Jaishankar said.
He added, 'The Pahalgam attack was an act of economic warfare. It was meant to destroy tourism in Kashmir, which was the mainstay of the economy. It was also meant to provoke religious violence because people were asked to identify their faith before they were killed. So we decided that we cannot let terrorists function with impunity. The idea that they are on that side of the border, and that, therefore, sort of prevents retribution, I think, that's a proposition that needs to be challenged and that is what we did.'