India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi maintained in a conversation with US President Donald Trump late on Tuesday that a ceasefire between India and Pakistan after a four-day conflict in May was achieved through talks between the two militaries and not US mediation, India’s senior-most diplomat said.
Trump had said last month that the nuclear-armed South Asian neighbours agreed to a ceasefire after talks mediated by the US, and that the hostilities ended after he urged the countries to focus on trade instead of war.
“PM Modi told President Trump clearly that during this period, there was no talk at any stage on subjects like India-US trade deal or US mediation between India and Pakistan,” Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said in a press statement.
“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,” he said.
Misri claimed that the two leaders spoke over the phone at the insistence of Trump on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Canada, which Modi attended as a guest. The call lasted 35 minutes.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the Modi-Trump call.
Pakistan has previously said that the ceasefire happened after its military returned a call the Indian military had initiated on May 7.
In the wake of last month’s ceasefire, President Trump had offered to resolve the Kashmir issue, calling it a “thousand-year-old” conflict. India maintains its long-standing position that the issue of Kashmir is a bilateral matter with no room for third-party involvement.
“As President Trump has stated, everyone has the right to define its own future. He offers his help, and it’s up to whoever he is offering it to, to whether or not they’ll accept it,” said State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce, when asked about India’s continued refusal to engage with Trump’s repeated mediation offers.
