External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar reaffirmed India's say that there is "no yielding to nuclear blackmail", as he spoke on New Delhi's response to the Pahalgam terror attack underlining a message of zero tolerance towards terrorism.
In conversation with Newsweek in New York, EAM refutes the claim of US President Donald Trump of using trade pressure to nudge New Delhi and Islamabad toward a ceasefire post-Operation Sindoor escalation between the two nations in May. EAM recalled sitting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi when US Vice President J.D. Vance placed a call, saying that at no point, the minister insisted, was the ceasefire tied to any trade discussion.
"I can tell you that I was in the room when Vice President Vance spoke to Prime Minister Modi on the night of May 9, saying that the Pakistanis would launch a very massive assault on India...We did not accept certain things, and the Prime Minister was impervious to what the Pakistanis were threatening to do. On the contrary, PM Modi indicated that there would be a response from us," he stated.
EAM then confirmed that late on the night of May 9, Pakistani forces launched a serious cross-border strike, but the Indian troops retaliated immediately. Outlining the timeline, Jaishankar noted that he next contacted Washington the very next morning, briefing US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. During their call, Rubio told him simply that 'the Pakistanis were ready to talk.' On the same evening Pakistan's Director General of Military Operations, Major General Kashif Abdullah, placed a direct call to his Indian counterpart, Lieutenant General Rajiv Ghai with the proposal of a ceasefire.
Also Read: Pahalgam attack was an act of economic terrorism: EAM
Jaishankar, who is on a three-day visit to the US, made the remarks while inaugurating an exhibition titled ‘The Human Cost of Terrorism’ at the UN headquarters on Monday. The exhibition, which will be on display at two locations in the UN headquarters from June 30-July 3 and July 7-July 11, opened a day before Pakistan begins its Presidency of the UN Security Council for July on Tuesday.
Referring to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack, Jaishankar said five weeks ago, the United Nations Security Council issued a “strong condemnation” of a “particularly horrific act of terrorism” in Pahalgam while also demanding to hold people accountable for the barbaric attack. The digital exhibition displays the horrific terror attacks perpetrated across the world -- from the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts, and 2008 Mumbai terror attacks to the April 22 Pahalgam attacks -- and names the terror outfits responsible for carrying out the attacks, including several Pakistan-based entities and individuals.
In his remarks, Jaishankar said it is with a "sense of solemnity that we have gathered” here for the exhibition that highlights the human cost of terrorism. This exhibition is a modest yet resolute effort to give voice to those who can no longer speak, a tribute to those who were taken away from us, and a remembrance of the lives shattered by the scourge of terrorism.
Each moment, each memory, each artifact, and every word tells the story of a life interrupted and altered, the Indian minister stated and also highlighted the pain of the families of the victims of terrorism. He said that here at the UN, "we must not just remember" but "commit ourselves" to act, protect, and uphold the very values and human rights that terrorism seeks to destroy.
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