India-Pak dealings are 'bilateral': EAM S. Jaishankar clarifies Op Sindoor aftermath, US involvement in ceasefire

India's External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on Monday clarified what really went down between India and Pakistan after the devastating Pahalgam attack of April 22.

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This comes amid US President Donald Trump's insistence that he had played a major role in bringing about the ceasefire that ended the 88-hour conflict between the two nuclear-armed neighbours, following Operation Sindoor, in which India launched a series of precision strikes on terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan.

In a NewsWeek interview titled 'What’s India Going to Do About…The World?', Jaishankar explained that he had been “in the room when (US) Vice President Vance on the night of May 9 (two days after Operation Sindoor)”.

He stated that PM Modi had been unperturbed when J.D. Vance had informed him that Pakistan would launch a “very massive assault” on India if it did not “accept certain things”, adding that Modi had even indicated that India would respond.

That night, Islamabad did attack as New Delhi had expected, to which “we responded very quickly”, he continued.

The very next morning (May 10), US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had phoned New Delhi, saying that “the Pakistanis were ready to talk”, he added, concluding his response to a question about whether Trump's trade deal leverage brought about the ceasefire, and whether it had delayed India-US trade negotiations.

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By saying that “(India's) dealings with Pakistan are bilateral”, Jaishankar also sets the narrative straight that India-US trade talks were not, in any way, related to America's claim of using trade to end the conflict—effectively saying that Trump played no role in ending the conflict.

“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 ... they're very professional and very, very focused about it.”

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