Had excellent meeting with US Vice President J D Vance: Tharoor

Washington: The multi-party delegation of Indian parliamentarians had an “excellent meeting” with US Vice President J D Vance who expressed “complete understanding, support and respect” for India’s restrained response in Operation Sindoor, leader of the delegation Shashi Tharoor said.

“It was an excellent meeting. I am very pleased that the vice president was so warm and welcoming and receptive,” Tharoor told PTI here.

The delegation met the vice president in the White House and the meeting lasted about 25 minutes.

Tharoor said Vance talked fondly of his and his family’s visit to India in April. “And of course, he also expressed complete understanding, first of all, outrage of what happened in Pahaglam and support and respect for India’s restrained response in Operation Sindoor.” “And the fact that India had every right to do what it did. All of that was very clear,” Tharoor said, adding that “we got across a few more messages” which he was not really at a liberty to talk about, very, very clearly, to the vice president and in turn, “we got a tremendously positive energy from him about future collaboration, areas like AI were on top of his mind. A lot of things that we can do together”.

“There was a tremendous amount of regard and mutual respect that came out of this meeting,” he said, adding that “I would say that we ended up with a very positive meeting”.

The vice president, his wife Usha Vance and their three young children were in India when the April 22 Pahalgam attack happened. Tharoor said that Vance mentioned that and also recalled his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Vance had called Modi when the attack happened and President Donald Trump had also called the PM within an hour of the killings.

“Excellent meeting with Vice President @JDVance today in Washington D.C. with our delegation,” Tharoor said in a post on X.

“We had comprehensive discussions covering a wide array of critical issues, from counter-terrorism efforts to enhancing technological cooperation. A truly constructive & productive exchange for strengthening India-US strategic partnership, with a great meeting of minds. #IndiaUS #Diplomacy #StrategicPartnership,” Tharoor added.

The Indian Embassy in the US said in a post on X, "the All Party Parliamentary Delegation led by Dr. @ShashiTharoor called on Vice President JD Vance @VP this morning. The conversation focused on strengthening the India-US partnership including cooperation in counter-terrorism domain.” India’s former ambassador to the US Taranjit Sandhu said in a post on X, “An excellent, comprehensive, constructive & productive interaction indeed”, regarding the meeting with Vance.

The delegation has travelled to Guyana, Panama, Colombia, and Brazil before arriving in Washington for the final leg of the tour to convey India’s stance against terrorism following the Pahalgam terror attack and Operation Sindoor.

Other members of the team are MPs Sarfaraz Ahmad, Ganti Harish Madhur Balayogi, Shashank Mani Tripathi, Bhubaneswar Kalita, Milind Deora, Tejasvi Surya, and India’s former ambassador to the US Taranjit Sandhu.