Did US broker India-Pak ceasefire? MEA says decided in direct talks, ‘conveyed’ our position

India has said that direct talks requested by Pakistan led to the ceasefire between the two countries and not any external mediation.

The clarification comes days after US President Donald Trump claimed that he brokered a ceasefire between India and Pakistan. While the Trump administration was working to ease the tensions, just like Saudi Arabia and others, it did not broker any ceasefire.

India has said that Pakistan reached out on Saturday (May 10) with the request for a ceasefire. The understanding to cease fire was formalised in the talks between the directors general of military operations (DGMOs) of the two sides that day.

At a media briefing on Tuesday, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said that there was no scope of any third-party intervention on the issue of Jammu and Kashmir. He also went into the details of India-Pakistan talks that led to the ceasefire.

More from India

Ceasefire decided in DGMO talks on Pak request’: MEA dimisses third party role in India-Pak truce J&K is bilateral issue, Pakistan must vacate illegally occupied territory: India rejects Trump’s mediation offer

“We have a longstanding national position that any issues pertaining to the Indian Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir have to be addressed by India and Pakistan bilaterally. That stated policy has not changed. As you are aware, the outstanding matter is the vacation of illegally occupied Indian territory by Pakistan,” said Jaiswal.

The MEA’s assertion of the longstanding, bipartisan standing comes after Trump offered to mediate between India and Pakistan to ‘solve’ the Kashmir issue.

Pakistan reached out with ceasefire request, says MEA

While the MEA had previously said that Pakistan had approached India for a ceasefire on Saturday, Jaiswal gave a detailed timeline in today’s press conference.

Jaiswal said that the MEA received a call from the Pakistani High Commission at 12:37 pm on Saturday with a request for a meeting between the DGMOs of the two sides.

Impact Shorts

More Shorts

'New dawn': PM Modi meets Manipur violence victims in first visit since 2023 unrest

CP Radhakrishnan takes oath as Vice President of India

While a hotline exists between DGMOs that they can use to talk to each other directly, Jaiswal said that Pakistan had initial difficulties connecting the hotline for technical reasons.

ALSO READ: Was this the reason Trump jumped into the Indo-Pak conflict?

After India received Pakistan’s request for a DGMO-level meeting via the high commission, the two DGMOs held talks at 3:35 pm, according to Jaiswal.

During the talks, the understanding for a ceasefire was reached, as per Jaiswal.

As for the involvement of third-parties, Jaiswal said that the Indian position, which was that India would its strikes stop if Pakistan would its attacks, was conveyed to them and they would have naturally conveyed it to Pakistan as well.

Jaiswal said, “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. It was that India was responding to the 22 April 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 Operation Sindoor, which was not heeded to by the Pakistani side at that time. It is natural that many foreign leaders who heard this from us would have shared it with their Pakistani interlocutors.”