Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has challenged President Donald Trump over his public boast that he was behind a ceasefire brokered last month between India and Pakistan.
Modi rang Trump on Tuesday night from the sidelines of the G7 summit in Canada, which the Indian PM is attending as a guest, and called him out for his claim that the U.S. was involved in mediation between the South Asian nuclear rivals who were on the brink of a full-blown war.
“PM Modi clearly told President Trump that during this entire incident, at no time, at any level, were there any talks on issues like India-U.S. trade deal or mediation between India and Pakistan through America,” Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri announced in a video statement.
“PM Modi stressed that India has never accepted mediation, does not accept it, and will never accept it.”
“Talks for ceasing military action happened directly between India and Pakistan through existing military channels, and on the insistence of Pakistan. Prime Minister Modi emphasised that India has not accepted mediation in the past and will never do,” Misri said.
Trump claimed on his Truth Social platform on May 10 that “India and Pakistan have agreed to a FULL AND IMMEDIATE CEASEFIRE” after “a long night of talks mediated by the United States.”
The president added: “Congratulations to both Countries on using Common Sense and Great Intelligence.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
The conflict between India and Pakistan was triggered by a deadly attack on tourists in Indian-controlled Kashmir on April 22. The brutal assault at a popular scenic meadow in the town of Pahalgam in the Himalayan mountains left at least 26 tourists dead and 17 more wounded.
In response, India launched missile strikes, ratcheting tensions up between the nations to their highest levels in more than two decades.
At the time, Trump delivered a casual response to the escalating crisis, calling it “a shame.”
“Just heard about it,” Trump said at the Oval Office on May 7. “I guess people knew something was going to happen based on a little bit of the past. They’ve been fighting for a long time.”
Trump then added: “I just hope it ends very quickly.”
His claim that the U.S. had helped broker a ceasefire came days after that.
REUTERS/Nathan Howard
Indian officials also swiftly shot down Trump’s claim last month that U.S. trade pressure helped bring about a ceasefire between India and Pakistan, contradicting the president’s version of events.
“I said, come on, we’re going to do a lot of trade with you guys. Let’s stop it. Let’s stop it,” Trump told reporters at the White House on May 12, referring to talks with both India and Pakistan. “If you stop it, we’re doing trade. If you don’t stop it, we’re not going to do any trade.”
But Indian officials told reporters trade never came up in any of the conversations with U.S. officials leading up to the ceasefire with Pakistan, Bloomberg reported, adding that the claim left senior figures furious. Trump’s remarks were seen as not only upstaging Modi but also undermining India’s longstanding position that the Kashmir dispute must be resolved directly between India and Pakistan, without any foreign involvement.
Trump and Modi’s phone call Tuesday was their first direct contact since the India-Pakistan conflict.
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