In call, PM Modi rejects Trump ceasefire claims

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Canadian counterpart Mark Carney have agreed on a range of "calibrated and constructive" steps to restore stability to bilateral ties, including the posting of envoys to each other's capitals, after a prolonged diplomatic spat over the killing of a pro-Khalistan separatist.

- Anirudh Bhattacharyya and Rezaul H Laskar

KANANASKIS/NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi told US President Donald Trump on Wednesday the decision by India and Pakistan to halt military actions in May was made directly during talks between the armies of the two sides and without any mediation by the US, pushing back against the American leader's claims that he brokered a ceasefire.

The issue figured in a phone conversation initiated at Trump's request after the two leaders were unable to meet on the margins of the G7 Summit in Canada because of the US president's return to the US ahead of schedule, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said. Modi also declined an invitation from Trump to stop by in the US on his way back from Canada, citing previous engagements. The Indian Prime Minister left Canada for a state visit to Croatia en route India.

During the 35-minute conversation, Modi told Trump that "India has never accepted mediation, does not and will never do so", Misri said, speaking in Hindi. Modi made it clear to Trump that during the entire episode of the four days of military clashes between the two countries during May 7-10, issues such as the "India-US trade deal or mediation by the US between India and Pakistan" were not discussed "at no time [or] at any level".

Trump was the first to announce the halting of hostilities between India and Pakistan on May 10 and an official American readout had even described the development as a ceasefire brokered by the US. Since then, Trump has claimed on more than a dozen occasions that he got India and Pakistan to stop fighting, and that he used the threat of stopping trade with both countries in these efforts.