Cong again demands clarification on us prez role in india-pak ceasefire - the statesman

The Congress on Thursday reiterated its demand for a clarification from the government on repeated claims of US President Donald Trump of brokering India-Pakistan ceasefire. “For the 8th

time in 11 days, President Trump has – 1. Claimed full credit for the ceasefire between India and Pakistan. 2. Praised the PMs of India and Pakistan equally and put them on par in every way

3. Reiterated that trade with the US was the instrument he used to get India and Pakistan to declare a ceasefire,” Congress General Secretary in-charge Communications Jairam Ramesh alleged

in a post on platform X. Advertisement Crediting his personal diplomacy and ongoing trade deals for the de-escalation , Trump on Wednesday continued blowing his trumpet that it was he who

played a key role in stopping hostilities between India and Pakistan. Advertisement “If you look at what we did with Pakistan and India, we resolved that whole issue, and I think we resolved

it through trade,” Donald Trump said Wednesday in the Oval Office during a meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. “Yet our PM–Donald bhai’s great buddy–is completely silent

on what the US President is repeatedly saying. The External Affairs Minister also continues to maintain complete quiet on what his pal, the US Secretary of State, has said in support of the

US President’s claims and about the “neutral site” for talks between India and Pakistan,” Mr Ramesh pointed out questioning: “Why this thundering silence?” Meanwhile, External Affairs

Minister S Jaishankar Thursday clarified 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 Nederlandse Omroep Stichting,

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. responding to another question Mr Jaishankar said:”…………. 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 the 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,” Mr Jaishankar said in the interview also picked up by Indian media. Also, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, who briefed the Parliament panel on Monday,

had clarified that the US had no role to play in clinching a ceasefire between India and Pakistan and that the plea had come from Pakistan’s Director-General of Military Operations to his

counterpart in Delhi. Mr Misri also clarified that Pakistan had reached out to India for a ceasefire after the precision strikes by the Indian armed forces hit Pak military installations,

including a China-made missile defence system in Lahore and the strategically important Nur Khan air base. Advertisement