SRINAGAR: India on Tuesday firmly denied United States President Donald Trump’s assertion that Washington used trade as leverage to help de-escalate the recent military standoff between India and Pakistan, calling the claim factually incorrect and unsubstantiated, reports appearing in the media said.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) clarified that no reference to trade was made in any diplomatic exchanges with American leaders during the crisis that erupted after the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack and culminated in Operation Sindoor, India’s military response launched on May 7.
President Trump, in a press conference on Monday at the White House, had claimed that the United States had stopped a potential “nuclear conflict” between the two South Asian nations and suggested that trade was a decisive tool in that intervention.
“We helped a lot, and we helped also with trade,” Trump said. “I said, ‘Come on, we’re going to do a lot of trade with you guys. Let’s stop it. If you stop it, we’re doing trade. If you don’t stop it, we’re not going to do any trade.’ And all of a sudden they said, ‘I think we’re going to stop’.”
The MEA, however, categorically refuted that trade was ever discussed in that context.
“From the time Operation Sindoor commenced on May 7 until the understanding on cessation of firing and military action on May 10, there were conversations between Indian and US leadership on the evolving military situation,” MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal told reporters on Tuesday. “The issue of trade did not come up in any of these discussions.”
He added that US Vice President J D Vance had spoken to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on May 9, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio had been in touch with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval on multiple occasions — none of which included trade as a subject.
This is not the first time President Trump’s remarks have drawn a sharp rebuttal from New Delhi. In July 2019, Trump had claimed that Modi had personally asked him to mediate on the Kashmir issue — a claim India flatly denied, stressing that all matters related to Jammu and Kashmir are strictly bilateral between India and Pakistan.
On Tuesday, Jaiswal reiterated India’s long-standing position. “Any issues pertaining to the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir have to be addressed by India and Pakistan bilaterally. That policy has not changed,” he said. “The outstanding matter remains the vacation of illegally occupied Indian territory by Pakistan.”
Jaiswal also confirmed that India will keep the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance — a decision taken after the deadly Pahalgam attack — until Pakistan “credibly and irrevocably” ceases its support for cross-border terrorism.
“Pakistan has held the principles of goodwill and cooperation, which underpinned the treaty, in abeyance by promoting terrorism for decades,” he said.
Trump’s comments on Monday also included praise for what he called the “strength and wisdom” of Indian and Pakistani leadership and claimed credit for averting a large-scale conflict. “They want to do business with America, but we never used our powers that way. We never knew how. We never had people that knew how to do that,” Trump said.
But Indian officials pointed out that any negotiations on trade with the US — including those that have been ongoing since 2018 — are part of routine bilateral economic engagement and entirely unrelated to security developments or military escalation involving Pakistan.
