External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Monday told Parliament that there was no phone call between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and United States President Donald Trump during Operation Sindoor.

“I want to make two things clear: one, at no stage in any conversation with the US, was there any linkage with trade and what was going on,” Jaishankar said during a debate in the Lok Sabha on the Pahalgam terror attack and the four-day India-Pakistan conflict.

“Secondly, there was no call between the Prime Minister and President Trump from April 22, when President Trump called up to convey his sympathy, and June 17 when he called up the PM in Canada to explain why he could not meet him,” he added.

The external affairs minister’s remark came against the backdrop of Trump repeatedly claiming that he helped India and Pakistan settle the tensions. The US president has also claimed that he pressured both countries into accepting the ceasefire by threatening to stop trade with them.

New Delhi has rejected Trump’s assertions.

Jaishankar also said that Operation Sindoor had ensured that terrorists would no longer be treated as proxies, adding that the military action created a “new normal” by conveying that cross-border terror attacks from Pakistan would draw an “appropriate response”.

All issues with Pakistan would be settled through bilateral means, the minister said. “The challenge of cross-border terrorism continues but Operation Sindoor marks a new phase,” he added.

The minister said that this “new normal” had five points. “One, terrorists will not be treated as proxies; two, cross-border terrorism will get an appropriate response; three, terror and talks are not possible together – there will only be talks on terror,” he said.

This would also entail not yielding to “nuclear blackmail”, Jaishankar said.

Reiterating comments made by Modi after Operation Sindoor in May, Jaishankar added: “Finally, terror and good neighbourliness cannot co-exist, blood and water cannot flow together. This is our position.”

Earlier during the debate on Monday, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh told the Lok Sabha that it was “absolutely wrong” to claim that India halted Operation Sindoor under any pressure.

Singh said that India decided to pause its action against the terror camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir as it had achieved its political and military objectives.

The defence minister also said that nine terror camps were destroyed at the start of the operation of May 7, and that India has proof of damage caused inside Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

Tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad escalated on May 7 when the Indian military carried out strikes – codenamed Operation Sindoor – on what it claimed were terrorist camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

The strikes were in response to the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam, which killed 26 persons on April 22.

The Pakistan Army retaliated to Indian strikes by repeatedly shelling Indian villages along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir. At least 22 Indian civilians and eight defence personnel were killed in the shelling.

India and Pakistan on May 10 reached an “understanding” to halt firing following the conflict.

New Delhi had announced the decision to stop military action minutes after Trump claimed on social media that India and Pakistan had agreed to the ceasefire. The US president had claimed that the ceasefire talks were mediated by Washington.

However, the Indian Ministry of Information and Broadcasting had said that the decision to stop the firing was “worked out directly between the two countries”, a position that New Delhi has maintained.

Ahead of the Parliament session, the Congress had demanded discussions on a range of matters, including Trump’s repeated claims of having brokered the ceasefire.

Also read: Centre unable to arrest terrorists even after 100 days of Pahalgam attack, says Congress