'America had no role in working out cessation of hostilities': Foreign secretary told parliament panel
PTC News Desk: Foreign secretary Vikram Misri on Monday informed the parliamentary panel that America had no role in brokeing a ceasefire deal between India and Pakistan and the decision of cessation of hostilities was taken at bilateral level between the two neighbouring countries.
"Trump publicly claimed at least seven times that he facilitated the ceasefire. Why was India silent?" asked one member from the panel. Another pointedly questioned why India "allowed Trump to repeatedly seize the narrative", particularly as he kept invoking Kashmir in his statements.
Foreign secretary's remarks comes days after opposition questioned America's role in mediating ceasefire talks. US President on May 10 publicly claimed that he facilitated a ceasefire, however Foreign Secretary rebutted the assertions, stating that the India-Pakistan ceasefire was a bilateral decision with no third-party involvement.
Furthermore, the Foreign Secretary also reiterated that the conflict between India and Pakistan remained within the bounds of conventional warfare, and there was no evidence of any nuclear posturing or signalling by Islamabad.
When opposition members raised concerns over the use of Chinese-origin military hardware by Pakistan, Vikram Misri reportedly said, "It doesn’t matter what they used; what matters is that we hit their airbases hard".
When questioned about the number of aircrafts lost during the operation, the Foreign Secretary declined to comment, citing national security concerns.
- With inputs from agencies
