External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar has dismissed the notion of thanking the United States for the understanding reached on 10 May that led to a halt in military action between India and Pakistan. He emphasised that the ceasefire was the outcome of direct communication between the military commanders of both nations and credited the Indian armed forces for compelling Islamabad to agree to a cessation of hostilities.
In an interview with the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Jaishankar stated, &ldquo;The cessation of firing was agreed upon by the military commanders of both sides through direct contact. I thank the Indian military because it was their action that made Pakistan say: &lsquo;We are ready to stop.&rsquo;&rdquo;
When asked, &ldquo;How close was the world to a nuclear conflict between India and Pakistan?&rdquo;, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar responded with clear disbelief.
&ldquo;Nowhere near,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m frankly astonished by your question. We had specific terrorist targets. Our response was measured, carefully considered, and deliberately non-escalatory. It was only after that the Pakistani military opened fire on us. We demonstrated our ability to disable their air defence systems, and then the firing stopped&mdash;at their request.&rdquo;
He firmly dismissed the notion that events had approached a nuclear threshold.
&ldquo;At no point did the situation come anywhere close to a nuclear level,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s this persistent narrative that anything that happens in our region inevitably leads to a nuclear crisis. That deeply troubles me, because it ends up encouraging terrible acts like terrorism. If anything, nuclear concerns should be more focused on developments in your part of the world.&rdquo;
Commenting on China&rsquo;s involvement, Jaishankar noted that many of the weapons used by Pakistan were of Chinese origin, highlighting the close strategic ties between the two countries. &ldquo;You can draw your own conclusions from that,&rdquo; he remarked.
Responding to questions about India&rsquo;s ties with Russia and its position on the Ukraine war, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar firmly rejected Western assumptions.
&ldquo;Relationships don&rsquo;t work by one side simply absorbing the other&rsquo;s concerns as their own,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re built on mutual understanding and common ground. In Europe, your concerns are different from ours in Asia. When you think of conflict, you think of Ukraine. When I think of conflict, I think of Pakistan, terrorism, China, and our borders. So no, our perspectives are not &mdash; and cannot be &mdash; the same.&rdquo;
Referring to the events that led up to the ceasefire, Jaishankar explained, &ldquo;We had terrorist targets. Our response was measured, carefully considered, and deliberately non-escalatory. Following this, the Pakistani military initiated fire against us. We demonstrated our capability to disable their air defence systems, and it was only after this that the firing ceased &mdash; at their request.&rdquo;
He also criticised the West for what he described as a recurring tendency to view any conflict in South Asia through the lens of a potential nuclear crisis. &ldquo;Anything that happens in South Asia is promptly linked to a nuclear crisis by the West,&rdquo; he said, calling this narrative &ldquo;disturbing&rdquo; and warning that it inadvertently encourages &ldquo;terrible activities like terrorism.&rdquo; Jaishankar further stated that terrorist organisations continue to operate &ldquo;openly&rdquo; from cities and towns within Pakistan.
Under Operation Sindoor, the Indian military conducted precision strikes on nine terror infrastructure sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in the early hours of 7 May, in retaliation for the 22 April terror attack in Pahalgam. On 10 May, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri announced that India and Pakistan had reached an understanding to immediately halt all military actions &mdash; on land, air, and sea.
Jaishankar, who made these remarks while in Berlin on the final leg of his three-nation tour of Denmark, Germany, and Sweden, concluded, &ldquo;We fired back in self-defence, and once the Pakistanis understood that they were pursuing a harmful course, we were able to bring the firing to a stop."&nbsp;
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Jaishankar said the ceasefire was agreed through direct contact of military commanders & also thanked the Indian military

S. Jaishankar on US, China in India-Pak Clash

Jaishankar said the ceasefire was agreed through direct contact of military commanders & also thanked the Indian military

May 27, 2025 | 12:35 IST