“I Was in the Room…”: Jaishankar Refutes Trump’s Claim Linking Trade to India-Pakistan Ceasefire

New Delhi: External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar has firmly rebutted US President Donald Trump’s claim that India and Pakistan were pressured into a ceasefire through trade leverage. Sharing a detailed account of events with Newsweek in New York, Jaishankar clarified that no such link between trade negotiations and a ceasefire existed on India’s part.

“I was in the room when Vice President JD Vance called Prime Minister Modi on the night of May 9, warning that Pakistan planned a massive assault. We did not accept certain things, and the Prime Minister was impervious to their threats,” Jaishankar stated.

He described how Pakistan did indeed carry out a large-scale attack that night, to which Indian forces responded “swiftly and decisively.” According to Jaishankar, the next morning saw contact with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who conveyed Pakistan’s willingness to talk. By the afternoon, Pakistan’s Director General of Military Operations, Major General Kashif Abdullah, directly approached his Indian counterpart to request a ceasefire.

Jaishankar also condemned the Pahalgam terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir, labelling it an act of “economic warfare” aimed at crippling tourism and provoking communal violence. “They asked people to identify their faith before killing them. It was meant to destroy Kashmir’s economy,” he said.

He explained that India launched Operation Sindoor in retaliation, targeting terror bases in Pakistan linked to the Resistance Front, which has ties to Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Jaishankar underlined India’s resolve to act against cross-border terrorism, despite Pakistan’s nuclear posturing. “We are not going to yield to nuclear blackmail, that there could be escalation, and therefore we should do nothing. That is a proposition that must be challenged,” he asserted.