PM Modi’s 35-Minute Phone Call: Sends Clear Message To Trump, Chooses Croatia Over US
PM Modi’s 35-Minute Phone Call: Sends Clear Message To Trump, Chooses Croatia Over US
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s plain-speak with Donald Trump over 35 minutes in a phone call has called the US President’s bluff that he had mediated a ceasefire between India and Pakistan using the trade factor. PM Modi also showed remarkable firmness by not accepting Trump’s request to stop-over in the US while returning from Canada and instead going ahead to Croatia.
It has long been said in top government circles in India that Trump and Modi never spoke during Operation Sindoor and that what Trump was saying regarding mediating a ceasefire was false. Modi made it a point to say to Trump directly that “at no time, at any level, were there any discussions on issues like India-US trade deal or mediation by the US between India and Pakistan”. Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said so in the call’s read-out too.
This is important as Congress back home has raided Trump’s repeated utterances to question why the PM has not countered Trump. Modi chose the call with Trump to set the record straight. “The halt to military action was discussed directly between India and Pakistan, through existing channels of the two armies, and at the request of Pakistan. India has never accepted mediation, and does not, and will never accept it,” Modi has told Trump.
The PM also made it clear to Trump that his only conversation with the US during Operation Sindoor was with Vice-President JD Vance on May 9. In that too, Modi made it clear that he had not relented and stood firm. “On the night of May 9, Vice President Vance told Modi that Pakistan could launch a major attack on India. Modi had told him in clear words that if this happens, India will give an even bigger response to Pakistan,” Misri said in a statement about what the PM told Trump.
Modi told Trump that India gave a very strong response to Pakistan’s attack on the night of May 9-10, and caused a lot of damage to the Pakistani army, making its military airbases inoperable.
Croatia over the U.S.
Modi also showed remarkable firmness in diplomacy by not changing his plans to visit Croatia, even after Trump asked Modi to make a stop-over in the US while returning from Canada. Croatia is a small Balkan country which no Indian PM has ever visited and Modi chose to go ahead with his commitment to visit Croatia on June 18. This is rare as no country ever says no a US invite, sources said.
“President Trump asked Prime Minister Modi he could stop by the US on his way back from Canada. Due to pre-scheduled engagements, Modi expressed his inability. The two leaders then decided that they would try to meet in the near future,” said a read-out by India’s Misri.
India said the meeting between Modi and Trump was scheduled to take place on the sidelines of the G7 summit. President Trump had to return to the US early, due to which this meeting could not take place. “After this, at the request of President Trump, the two leaders spoke on the phone today,” India said. The Modi-Trump phone conversation lasted for about 35 minutes.
Firmness on Op Sindoor
PM Modi clearly told President Trump that after April 22, India had told the whole world about its determination to take action against terrorism. The Prime Minister said that on the night of 6-7 May, India had targeted only terrorist hideouts in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
“India’s actions were very measured, precise, and non-escalatory. At the same time, India had also made it clear that India would respond to Pakistan’s bullets with bombs,” the PM told Trump.
India said President Trump understood the points made by the PM in detail and expressed support for India’s fight against terrorism.
PM Modi also said that India now sees terrorism as a war, not a proxy war, and India’s Operation Sindoor is still ongoing.
For the next meeting of the QUAD, Prime Minister Modi invited President Trump to visit India.
President Trump accepted the invitation and said that he is looking forward to visiting India.
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