Roving Periscope: India punctures Trump claim for the May 10 ‘ceasefire’

Virendra Pandit

New Delhi: India on Tuesday denied US President Donald Trump’s suggestion that he used trade as a tool to secure a ‘truce’ between India and Pakistan on Saturday last week (May 10), according to the media reports.

In his address to the nation on Monday evening, Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserted that the ongoing Operation Sindoor, aiming to flush out terrorists, their infrastructure, and backers in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) continues relentlessly and only the exchange of fires has temporarily and conditionally been suspended, not stopped.

According to a Bloomberg report, an unidentified Indian official said on Tuesday that US Vice-President JD Vance’s May 9 call with PM Modi did not mention trade.

Trump’s reported comments come as the US and India are currently negotiating a trade deal that New Delhi hopes will spare it from Washington’s so-called reciprocal tariffs.

Indian officials denied that trade with the US was used as a bargaining chip in the May 10 ‘ceasefire’ between India and Pakistan, contradicting statements by President Donald Trump that America offered to trade more with both countries if they stopped hostilities. 

“I said, come on, we’re going to do a lot of trade with you guys. Let’s stop it. Let’s stop it,” Trump said at the White House on Monday, referring to discussions with the two sides. “If you stop it, we’re doing trade. If you don’t stop it, we’re not going to do any trade.”

Indian officials said that trade was never discussed with US officials in a series of conversations in the lead up to the May 10 ‘ceasefire’ with Pakistan. 

Trade did not figure even in the discussions between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar and National Security Adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval, the officials said.

Their discussions concluded with an alleged ceasefire first claimed by President Trump on Saturday last in a social-media post. India and Pakistan had been on the brink of a full-blown war with drone and missile strikes on military sites and terror infrastructures prior to the ceasefire, and India was a clear winner, having destroyed a lot of Pakistan’s terror and military infrastructures and killed over 100 terrorists in a swift, 100-hour action from May 7. 

Traditionally, military officials announce a ‘ceasefire.’

So, Trump’s unilateral and sudden announcement, in which he tried to take undue credit for ‘ceasefire’ left Indian officials seething. New Delhi saw it as an attempt to upstage PM Modi and undermine its longstanding policy of handling India’s dispute with Pakistan over Kashmir bilaterally. Predictably, the defeated Pakistani officials crawled out of their bunkers and celebrated the Trump claim. 

In his Monday speech to the nation, however, PM Modi did not even mention the US or credit Trump for the alleged ceasefire. Instead, he said, Pakistan was the one to request a de-escalation after Indian forces struck at its “heart.” He also clarified that any talks with Pakistan will be exclusively bilateral, not in any ‘neutral’ place, and only on the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and terror.

“Therefore, when Pakistan appealed and said that it will not indulge in any sort of terror activities or military audacity further, India considered it,” he said.

Even after suffering humongous losses, however, Pakistan claimed that India first asked for de-escalation.

In a visit to the White House in February, both Modi and Trump said they had agreed to boost trade ties. But the Indian PM had to rush back from Saudi Arabia on April 23 after the Pakistan-sponsored terrorists massacred 26 Hindu-only tourists at Pahalgam, J&K, which completely altered the geopolitical narrative. 

India took steps this week to counter higher US tariffs on steel and aluminium, proposing retaliatory levies on some American goods in a move that may complicate negotiations over the bilateral deal.

In his White House remarks on Monday, Trump said the negotiations with India were continuing, and said the US would negotiate a separate trade pact with Pakistan. 

“We’re going to do a lot of trade with Pakistan,” he said. “We’re going to do a lot of trade with India. We’re negotiating with India right now. We’re going to be soon, negotiating with Pakistan. And we stopped a nuclear conflict.”