Modi, Trump did not speak between April 22-June 17, Pakistan was sent clear message with Op Sindoor: Jaishankar

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi had no phone call with President Donald Trump between April 22 and June 17, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar told the Lok Sabha on Monday. The EAM once again dismissed repeated claims from Washington, DC, about the United States brokering a ceasefire between India and Pakistan and ending the May 7-10 cross-border flare-up.

Jaishankar said that India sent out to Pakistan a clear message after the terrorist attack in Pahalgam in J&K. "The challenge of cross-border terrorism continues, but Operation Sindoor marks a new phase. There is now a new normal. The new normal has five points," he said, adding: "One: terrorists will not be treated as proxies, two: cross-border terrorism will get an appropriate response, three: terror and talks are not possible together and there will only be talks on terror, four: not yielding to nuclear blackmail and finally, terror and good neighbourliness cannot coexist, blood and water cannot flow together. This is our position."

He said that New Delhi’s diplomacy after the April 22 carnage in Jammu and Kashmir had ensured that only three of about 190 member states of the United Nations had opposed India’s Operation Sindoor targeting the terrorist camps in Pakistan and areas under illegal occupation of Pakistan.

“On May 10, we received phone calls sharing the impression of other countries that Pakistan was ready to cease the fighting. Our position was that if Pakistan was ready, we needed to get this as a request from the Pakistani side through the DGMO (Director General of Military Operations) channel. That is exactly how that request came,” Jaishankar said, explaining in the House how New Delhi and Islamabad had reached an understanding to halt the four-day-long cross-border military offensives and counter-offensives.

"I want to make two things very clear – at no stage in any conversation with the US was there any linkage with trade and what was going on. Secondly, there was no call between the Prime Minister and President Trump from April 22 -- when President Trump called up to convey his sympathy (over the carnage in J&K) – till June 17, when he called up the Prime Minister, who was in Canada (for the G7 summit)," he said.

Trump has been repeatedly claiming that he used the threat of stopping the US trade with India and Pakistan to make the two South Asian nations halt the cross-border flare-up on May 10.

"Overwhelmingly, there was recognition that terror was unacceptable and the country which has been attacked had the right to defend itself, and India was doing exactly that," Jaishankar said, adding: “When Operation Sindoor was launched, we put out our objectives that it was hitting terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Our actions were focused, measured and non-escalatory, and we were living up to the commitment that those responsible for the attacks will be held responsible.”

"When Operation Sindoor was launched, we put out our objectives that it was hitting terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Our actions were focused, measured and non-escalatory, and we were living up to the commitment that those responsible for those attacks will be held responsible," he said.

Jaishankar pointed out that The Resistance Front (TRF) group, which had carried out the attacks in J&K, had been designated as a global terror organisaion by the US due to Indian diplomacy.

The external affairs minister intervened in the special discussion in the Lok Sabha on “India's strong, successful and decisive Operation Sindoor in response to the terror attack in Pahalgam”.

The opposition MPs repeatedly interrupted Jaishankar. This prompted Home Minister Amit Shah to criticise the opposition MPs for not allowing the external affairs minister to present his statement.