India’s Modi denies Trump mediated Pakistan ceasefire using trade deals
Modi clarified New Delhi’s position to the US president during the leaders’ call, a top Indian diplomat said
Modi held a 35-minute call with Trump on Tuesday night in the US after the two leaders failed to meet in person at the Group of Seven meeting in Canada, India’s Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said in a video statement.
It was their first conversation since the four-day military strikes between India and Pakistan last month that brought the two neighbours close to war. Trump has consistently said the US helped broker a ceasefire and that he used trade deals as a negotiating tool, comments that Indian officials have disputed.
Modi clarified India’s position to Trump during the leaders’ call, Misri said on Wednesday.
“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-US trade deal or mediation between India and Pakistan through America,” he said. “PM Modi stressed that India has never accepted mediation, does not accept it, and will never accept it.”