Prime Minister Narendra Modi has clarified to US President Donald Trump in a telephonic conversation that the proposed India-US trade deal was never discussed in connection with Operation Sindoor and there was no talk on US mediation between India and Pakistan, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said.
However, Modi’s assertion that the ceasefire between India and Pakistan was directly worked out by the two countries was challenged by Trump. After the phone call with Modi, Trump reiterated at a media briefing on Wednesday that he had stopped the war between the two countries.
The two leaders spoke on the telephone for about 35 minutes after an in-person meeting scheduled on the sidelines of the G7 meeting in Canada could not take place due to Trump’s early departure from the meet on Tuesday, Misri said in a statement on Wednesday.
‘Never ever agreed to mediation’
“PM Modi clearly told President Trump that during the entire episode (Operation Sindoor), never, at any level, was the India-US trade deal discussed. There was also no talk on US mediating between India and Pakistan. The talks on the ceasefire happened directly between India and Pakistan, at Pakistan’s initiative, using existing channels between the two armed forces,” Misri said, giving details of the phone call.
But Trump did not seem to agree. “Well, I stopped the war…. I love Pakistan. I think Modi is a fantastic man. I spoke to him last night. We’re going to make a trade deal with Modi of India. But I stopped the war between Pakistan and India,” Trump said.
“Modi, from the India side, and others. They were going at it, and they’re both nuclear countries. I got it stopped. I don’t think I had one story. Did I have one story written… I stopped the war between two major nations, major nuclear nations. I don’t think I had a story written about it,” the US President said, adding that the people know.
In the phone conversation, Modi further stressed that India had never ever agreed to mediation on Pakistan and would never do so in the future and there was political consensus on the matter, the MEA statement pointed out.
Trump and his aides asserted multiple times that during Operation Sindoor, carried out by India against Pakistan last month, the US had helped put a stop to escalation in military tensions by using trade as an instrument to broker peace.
Trumpeted claims
Operation Sindoor was a targeted campaign by India, initiated on May 7, to dismantle terror infrastructure in Pakistan, in response to a heinous terror attack on tourists in Pahalgam, Jammu & Kashmir, on April 22, that killed 26 people.
On May 10, it was Trump who first announced a “ceasefire” between the two countries, which was later confirmed by India and Pakistan.
“And we helped a lot, and we also helped with trade…. I said, if you stop it, we’re doing trade. If you don’t stop it, we’re not going to do any trade. People have never really used trade the way I used it. By that, I can tell you, and all of a sudden they said, I think we’re gonna stop. And they have,” Trump said later at a media briefing.
Reciprocal tariffs
Both India and Pakistan are working on bilateral trade agreements with the US to avoid reciprocal tariffs announced by Trump individually on countries with which America has a trade deficit. While Trump imposed a baseline tariff of 10 per cent on all countries in April, the remaining reciprocal tariffs were paused for a 90-day period, till July 9.
New Delhi is hoping for an interim pact before July 9 to stop the US from imposing the full reciprocal tariff of 26 per cent, roll-back the 10 per cent baseline tariff and remove the sector-specific tariffs on steel & aluminium and automobiles. The first tranche of the full-fledged India-US BTA is expected in Fall 2025 (September-October).
Trump invited Modi to meet during his current visit to the US, but due to a pre-existing schedule, the Indian PM was unable to accept the invitation. Both leaders agreed to meet in the near future, Misri said.