New Delhi: India on Tuesday appeared to push back against US President Donald Trump’s offer of mediation on the Kashmir issue, assertion on trade and his claims of defusing a nuclear conflict in the context of hostilities between Indian and Pakistani militaries following the Pahalgam terror attack.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) also seemed to reject Trump’s forceful comments that Washington brokered the understanding between India and Pakistan on ending their four-day military conflict.
MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal, replying to a volley of questions at a media briefing on the US president’s remarks on Kashmir, said India has a “longstanding” national position that any issue relating to it will have to be addressed by New Delhi and Islamabad bilaterally.
“That stated policy (on Jammu and Kashmir) has not changed. As you are aware, the outstanding matter is the vacation of illegally occupied Indian territory by Pakistan,” he said.
In a social media post on May 11, Trump claimed credit for helping India and Pakistan arrive at a “historic and heroic decision” to end their hostilities and offered to mediate on the Kashmir issue, saying he will work with both sides to see if a “solution can be arrived at concerning Kashmir”.
Without directly mentioning Trump’s claim of brokering the understanding on cessation of hostilities between India and Pakistan, Jaiswal said the arrangement was firmed up during a conversation over the hotline by Directors General of Military Operations (DGMOs) on May 10.
He said Indian military’s “extremely effective attack” on key Pakistani air force bases on early May 10 forced Islamabad to stop military action.
“Let me be clear. It was of force of Indian arms that compelled Pakistan to stop its firing,” he said, indirectly rebutting Trump’s claim.
Asked about Trump’s claim that his administration stopped a “nuclear conflict” between India and Pakistan, Jaiswal said India’s military action was entirely in the conventional domain.
“As you know, India has a firm stance that it will not give in to nuclear blackmail or allow cross-border terrorism to be conducted invoking it.”
“In conversations with various countries, we also cautioned that their subscribing to such scenarios could hurt them in their own region,” he said.
In his remarks to the media on Monday, Trump said: “On Saturday, my administration helped broker a full and immediate ceasefire, I think a permanent one, between India and Pakistan, ending a dangerous conflict of two nations with lots of nuclear weapons.”
The US president also claimed that he pressured New Delhi and Islamabad to stop hostilities by threatening to cut trade with both countries.
Asked about this, Jaiswal said the issue of trade did not come up in any of of the discussions.
“From the time Operation Sindoor commenced on May 7 till the understanding on cessation of firing and military action on May 10, there were conversations between Indian and US leaders on the evolving military situation,” he said.
“The issue of trade did not come up in any of these discussions,” he added.
The MEA spokesperson also explained that following the Pahalgam terror attack India conveyed to several countries that it was going to respond to the dastardly strike by targeting the terrorist infrastructure.
“As regards conversations with other nations, the message from India was clear and consistent. And exactly the same message that we were conveying from public platforms was the one conveyed in private conversations,” he said.
“It was that India was responding to the April 22 terrorist attack by targeting the terrorist infrastructure.”
“However, if the Pakistani armed forces fire, Indian armed forces will fire back; if Pakistan stops, India will also stop. This was also the message that was conveyed to the Pakistani side at the time of the commencement of Op Sindoor, which was not heeded to by the Pakistani side at that time,” Jaiswal said.
“It is natural that many foreign leaders who heard this from us would have shared it with their Pakistani interlocutors,” he said.
Jaiswal also said India will keep the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance until Pakistan credibly and irrevocably abjures support for cross-border terrorism.
Pakistan nurtured terrorism on an industrial scale, he said.
Terrorist infrastructure that India destroyed under Operation Sindoor were responsible not only for the deaths of Indians but of many other innocents around the world, he said.
India carried out precision strikes on terror infrastructure early on May 7 following which Pakistan attempted to attack Indian military bases on May 8, 9 and 10.
The Pakistani actions were strongly responded to by the Indian side by inflicting heavy damages to a number of key Pakistani military installations including air bases, air defence systems, command and control centres and radar sites.
Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri on Saturday evening announced that India and Pakistan reached an understanding to stop all firings and military actions on land, air and sea, with immediate effect.
