Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar delivers remarks to media after the Quad Ministerial Meeting in Tokyo, on July 29, 2024. — Reuters
Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has revealed that the US Vice President JD Vance warned Prime Minister Narendra Modi of a potential large-scale attack by Pakistan on the night of May 9, urging India to accept certain conditions to prevent escalation.
The April 22 Pahalgam attack sparked heavy fighting between nuclear-armed Pakistan and India in the latest escalation of a decades-old rivalry as New Delhi blamed it on Islamabad without offering any evidence.
In an interview with the US media outlet, Jaishankar said that JD Vance telephoned Prime Minister Modi directly and conveyed that if India did not concede on certain matters, Pakistan would launch a major assault.
“I was in the room when the US vice president spoke to Prime Minister Modi on the night of May 9, warning that the Pakistanis would launch a very massive assault on India if we did not accept certain things,” he said.
“That night, Pakistan did launch a large-scale attack,” Jaishankar stated.
Recently, the strategic group “Quad” consisting of the United States, India, Japan and Australia chose not to name Pakistan in a joint statement condemning Pahalgam attack in IIOJK.
The US State Department issued a joint statement by the foreign ministers of the grouping, who met in Washington, but stopped short of naming Pakistan or blaming Islamabad.
Last month, Pakistan and India engaged in the military confrontation triggered by April’s Pahalgam attack in IIOJK.
In response to the Indian aggression, Pakistan’s armed forces launched a large-scale retaliatory military action, named “Operation Bunyan-um-Marsoos”, and targeted several Indian military targets across multiple regions.
Pakistan downed its six fighter jets, including three Rafales, and dozens of drones. After at least 87 hours, the war between the two nuclear-armed nations ended on May 10 with a ceasefire agreement brokered by the US.
The ceasefire was first announced by US President Donald Trump on social media after Washington held talks with both sides, but India has differed with Trump’s claims that it resulted from his intervention and threats to sever trade talks.
However, Pakistan has acknowledged Trump’s efforts and formally recommended him for the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize, citing his role in defusing tensions between Pakistan and India last month.
