AMSTERDAM: India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has said that the cessation of firing and military action was negotiated directly between India and Pakistan.
He said that India had made it clear to every nation, including the US that Pakistan needs to call India’s general and say that if it wants to stop the firing.
In an interview with the Netherlands-based NOS, Jaishankar said that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke to him, and US Vice President JD Vance talked to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
He stressed that it is natural that nations call up when there are two nations involved in a conflict.
When asked whether both armies talked to each other, initiated by the Pakistani army, Jaishankar said, “Yes, we have a mechanism to talk to each other as a hotline. So, on the 10th of May, it was the Pakistani army which sent a message that they were ready to stop firing, and we responded accordingly.”
The cessation of hostilities between the two nations came after India’s ‘Operation Sindoor’, launched in retaliation for the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 civilians.
On being asked about the US role in the cessation of hostilities between India and Pakistan, he responded, “Well, the US was in the United States.
“Obviously, US Secretary of State Rubio and Vice President Vance had called up, Rubio had spoken to me, Vance had spoken to our Prime Minister, they had their view and they were talking to us and they were talking to Pakistani side as indeed were some other countries. There were some countries in the Gulf, there were some others as well.”
“That happens naturally, when we know when two countries are engaged in a conflict, it is natural that the countries in the world call up, sort of indicate their concern and what they can do in such a situation but the cessation of firing and military action was something which was negotiated directly between India and Pakistan,” he stated.
Tensions between India and Pakistan rose following the terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam, which claimed the lives of 26 people and injured several others.
In response to the Pahalgam terrorist attack, Indian Armed Forces launched Operation Sindoor in the early hours of May 7, targeting nine terror sites in Pakistan, leading to the death of over 100 terrorists affiliated with terror outfits like the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Hizbul Mujahideen (HM).
Following the attack, Pakistan retaliated with cross-border shelling across the Line of Control and Jammu and Kashmir as well as attempted drone attacks along the border regions, following which India launched a coordinated attack and damaged radar infrastructure, communication centres and airfields across airbases in Pakistan.
On May 10, India and Pakistan reached an understanding on the cessation of hostilities. (ANI)
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