"I Was In The Room": S Jaishankar Refutes Trump's India-Pak Ceasefire Claims
Foreign Minister S Jaishankar on Monday called the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pehalgam an "act of economic warfare" meant to destroy tourism in Kashmir.
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Foreign Minister Jaishankar Contradicts Trump's Claims About India-Pakistan Ceasefire
New York:
India's Foreign Minister S Jaishankar described the recent terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam as an "act of economic warfare" designed to devastate Kashmir's tourism industry. During an exclusive interview with Newsweek in New York, he firmly stated that India would not yield to nuclear blackmail that might prevent responses to terrorism from Pakistan. The Minister also provided his firsthand account of discussions between New Delhi and Washington prior to the ceasefire agreement with Islamabad.
Jaishankar directly challenged US President Donald Trump's assertion that trade pressure was used to compel India and Pakistan to agree to a ceasefire following the escalation of India's Operation Sindoor in May. The Minister revealed he was personally present with Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the phone conversation with US Vice President JD Vance, and confirmed there was no connection between trade negotiations and the ceasefire discussions as far as India was concerned.
"I can tell you that I was in the room when Vice President Vance spoke to Prime Minister Modi on the night of May 9, saying that the Pakistanis would launch a very massive assault on India...We did not accept certain things, and the Prime Minister was impervious to what the Pakistanis were threatening to do," Jaishankar stated.
"On the contrary, he (PM Modi) indicated that there would be a response from us," the Minister added while detailing the sequence of events.
According to Jaishankar, Pakistan launched a "massive" attack on India on the night of May 9, but Indian forces responded rapidly and effectively.
The next communication with Washington occurred between Jaishankar and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio the following morning, with Rubio informing him that "Pakistanis were ready to talk." Later that day, Pakistan's Director General of Military Operations, Major General Kashif Abdullah, directly contacted his Indian counterpart, Lieutenant General Rajiv Ghai, requesting a ceasefire.
"So, I can only tell you from my personal experience what happened," Jaishankar explained during a fireside chat with Newsweek's CEO Dev Pragad.
The Minister emphasized that India has endured numerous terrorist attacks originating from Pakistan over the years, and following the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack, there was a national sentiment that "enough is enough."
"It 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," he explained.
"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," Jaishankar added.
India initiated Operation Sindoor against terrorist bases in Pakistan in response to the Pahalgam terrorist attack perpetrated by the Resistance Front, a group linked to Pakistan-supported Lashkar-e-Taiba.
Despite India's repeated denials, Trump reiterated his claim last Wednesday during a press conference in The Hague, stating, "I ended that with a series of phone calls on trade."
"I said, 'Look, if you're gonna go fighting each other ... we're not doing any trade deal,'" Trump said.
According to the US President, they responded that "You have to do a trade deal."
Jaishankar firmly maintained that the conversation did not occur as Trump claimed, and emphasized that diplomacy and trade were separate domains that operated independently of each other.
"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 tradeoffs," he said.
"I think they're very professional and very, very focused," he concluded.