External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has squashed any speculation US President Donald Trump played a role - either by threatening to withhold trade or speaking on behalf of the Pakistani Army - in negotiating an India-Pakistan ceasefire to end Operation Sindoor.
"There was no call between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Trump between April 22 (the Pahalgam attack) and June 17 (the ceasefire)... and at no stage was there any link between trade and what was going on..." he said Monday evening during a volatile Parliament discussion on Op Sindoor.
The remarks follow Mr Trump claiming he coaxed Delhi and Islamabad into stopping a conflict that escalated after missile strikes on terrorist bases in Pak and Pak-occupied Kashmir. Earlier, the Congress' Gaurav Gogoi said Mr Trump claimed 26 times he used trade deals to ensure a ceasefire.
India has firmly, and repeatedly, shot down Trump's claims, and also rebuffed his offer to 'mediate' a settlement to Pakistan's continued illegal occupation of Jammu and Kashmir. In fact, Prime Minister Modi himself delivered this message in a phone call with the American leader in mid-June.
READ | "No Trade Deal Talk, Mediation Offer During Pak Conflict": PM To Trump
India has also dismissed Trump's heavy-handed linking of the India-US trade deal and the ceasefire.
The US leader, during one of his many earlier credit grabs, said he told Mr Modi and Pak officials 'fellas, let's not trade nuclear missiles... let's trade the things you make so beautifully'.
He also claimed to have "sure as hell helped settle the India-Pak problem".
Mr Jaishankar's remarks today echo those he made on July 1, when he revealed he was with Mr Modi when US Vice President JD Vance spoke to him on the phone. Then too there had been no talk linking trade and ceasefire as far as India was concerned, the Foreign Minister said.
On July 1 Mr Jaishankar told an American publication that Mr Modi spoke to Mr Vance on the night of May 9 to warn him of "a very massive assault on India" by Pakistan.
READ | "I Was In The Room": S Jaishankar Refutes Trump's India-Pak Ceasefire Claims
The next contact, he said, was shortly before Pakistan's military called to ask for peace.
Mr Jaishankar said that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told him 'the Pakistanis are ready to talk'. And, hours later, Pak's Director-General of Military Operations reached out to India.
The emphatic delinking of US and the India-Pak ceasefire is in response to repeated jabs by the opposition, mainly the Congress, which had criticised the government for allowing a foreign power to dictate foreign policy, and said India's diplomatic power had been "shattered".
'India Won't Tolerate Terrorism'
Meanwhile, during his speech - interrupted by the opposition on more than one occasion, which provoked Home Minister Amit Shah to rise to his colleague's defence - Mr Jaishankar said India would not tolerate terrorist activity on its soil and reserves the right to defend its citizens.
"It was important to send a strong and resolute message after Pahalgam... a red line was crossed, and we had to make it clear there will be serious consequences," he said, outlining steps taken, beginning with diplomatic censures and the suspension of the critical 1960 Indus Waters Treaty.
Mr Jaishankar said proof of the strength of that message, which included sending cross-party delegations to partner countries, including the US, to explain India's new doctrine on terrorism, was that only three of 190 United Nations-member countries opposed Operation Sindoor. There was an overwhelming belief that India, which had been attacked, has the right to defend itself, he said.
On Op Sindoor itself, he said, as Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had a few hours earlier, that India's actions were "measured" and "non-escalatory", and focused only on disabling terrorist infrastructure.
The cross-party delegations, Mr Jaishankar said, had two messages for partner nations. "... zero tolerance for terrorism and the right to defend our people against terrorists," he told Parliament.
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