India’s Ministry of External Affairs on Tuesday firmly denied any third-party involvement in the ceasefire agreement reached with Pakistan on May 10, asserting that it was New Delhi’s military offensive that led to Islamabad’s climbdown.
MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal stated that the ceasefire followed India’s successful air strikes on strategic Pakistani Air Force bases earlier that morning. “You will of course appreciate that early on (May) 10th morning, we had mounted an extremely effective attack on key Pakistani Air Force bases. That was the reason they were now willing to stop firing and military action,” Jaiswal said. “Let me be clear. It was the force of Indian arms that compelled Pakistan to stop its firing.”
Reiterating India’s position, Jaiswal also clarified that there was no discussion of trade with the United States during Operation Sindoor. “The issue of trade did not come up during any talks with the United States,” he said, rejecting suggestions of external pressure behind the ceasefire.
India said its long-standing position on Kashmir has been that it is a bilateral issue between New Delhi and Islamabad and there is no change of this stand.
The assertion came against the backdrop of US President Donald Trump’s renewed offer to mediate on the Kashmir issue.
“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,” external affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said.
“That stated policy has not changed. As you are aware, the outstanding matter is the vacation of illegally occupied Indian territory by Pakistan,” he said.
Jaiswal was responding to a question on Trump’s offer.
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View AllOn speculation on nuclear war by Trump, Jaiswal said the military action was entirely in the conventional domain.
“There were some reports that Pakistan’s National Command Authority will meet on May 10. But this was later denied by them. Pakistan foreign minister has himself denied the nuclear angle on record,” Jaiswal said.
“As you know, India has a firm stance that it will not give in to nuclear blackmail or allow cross-border terrorism to be conducted invoking it,” he said.
“In conversations with various countries, we also cautioned that their subscribing to such scenarios could hurt them in their own region,” he added.
Jaiswal said India will keep Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance until Pakistan credibly and irrevocably abjures support for cross-border terrorism.
Pakistan nurtured terrorism on an industrial scale, he said.
Terrorist infrastructure that India destroyed under Operation Sindoor were responsible not only for the deaths of Indians but of many other innocents around world, he said