Foreign Minister S Jaishankar took a fresh swipe at Pakistan this week — rejecting talks with the neighbouring country on anything except ending terrorism. He also insisted that India would no longer accept that terrorists were proxies separate from the sponsor countries. The Indian politician also warned that New Delhi would strike again if it became a necessity.
“We are now moving to a policy of no impunity. We will not accept that the terrorists are proxies and somehow, therefore, the state is not culpable. I mean, we think it’s very clear the Pakistani state is up to its eyeballs in this one. I think we will strike at terrorists. We will protect. We will exercise the right to defend our people. And I think that message has been made pretty clear,” he told Newsweek.
Operation Sindoor was launched by the Indian Armed Forces on May 7, targeting nine terror sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied-Kashmir in response to a terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam on April 22, in which 26 people were killed.
‘I was in room when Vance spoke to PM Modi’
Jaishankar also issued a fresh rebuttal to continued claims from US President Donald Trump about “averting nuclear war” between the two countries. The POTUS claims that he used trade to force India and Pakistan to accept a ceasefire after tensions escalated in May — despite repeated clarifications from India that the US had played no role in negotiations. Jaishankar revealed during the interview with Newsweek that he had been present when Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US Vice President JD Vance held a telephonic conversation on the night of May 9.
“No, I don’t think so. I think the trade people are doing what the trade people should be doing, which is negotiating with numbers and lines and products and making their tradeoffs. I think they’re very professional and very focused about it,” he said when asked about Trump’s claims of using trade as leverage.
The Indian Foreign Minister also reiterated India’s long-held position that dealings with Pakistan were bilateral.
“I can tell you that when I was in the room when Vice President Vance spoke to Prime Minister Modi on the night of 9th May saying that you know the Pakistanis would launch a very massive assault on India if we did not accept certain things and the prime minister was impervious to what the Pakistanis were threatening to do on the contrary he (PM Modi) indicated that there would be a response from us this was the night before. Something the Pakistanis did was attack us massively that night, we responded very quickly thereafter, and the next morning, Mr Rubio called me up and said the Pakistanis were ready to talk. So, I can only tell you from my personal experience what happened,” he added.