"We Have Enormous Respect But...": Shashi Tharoor On Trump's India-Pak Ceasefire Claim

Days after US President Donald Trump repeated his claim that he stopped India and Pakistan from fighting, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Tuesday said that India doesn't "need to be persuaded" as it doesn't want a war.

India has repeatedly denied claims that President Trump played a key role in facilitating the India-Pakistan ceasefire on May 10, which came after four days of intense cross-border fighting.

Mr Tharoor, who is leading an Indian parliamentary delegation to the US to highlight India's policy of zero-tolerance to terrorism, stated that India had "consistently" said from the very beginning on May 7 - when the Indian armed forces launched Operation Sindoor to avenge the terror attack in Pahalgam - that it is "not interested in prolonging the conflict".

"We have enormous respect for the American presidency, and we will speak with that respect in mind. But broadly speaking, our understanding is a bit different. We had consistently said from the very beginning on May 7 that we are not interested in prolonging the conflict. This is not the opening salvo in some sort of war. All it is is retribution against the terrorists, period. If Pakistan had not reacted, we would not have reacted," he told the news agency ANI.

#WATCH | Brasilia, Brazil | "We have enormous respect for the American presidency, and we will speak with that respect in mind. But broadly speaking, our understanding is a bit different... No one needed to persuade us to stop. We had already said to stop. If there was any… pic.twitter.com/U89ZvCTvfw

— ANI (@ANI) June 3, 2025

Mr Tharoor, whose party has questioned the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over President Trump's ceasefire claims, said that no one needed to "persuade India to stop".

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"We had already said to stop. If there was any persuasion by the American president or his senior officials, it would have been persuasion of the Pakistanis. They would have had to be persuaded," he said.

"We don't need to be persuaded because we don't want war. We want to focus on development. That's the basic message," the Congress leader added.

Trump Says Stopped "Potential Nuclear War" Between India, Pak

Shashi Tharoor's reaction comes days after President Trump said the "deal" he is most proud of is that he was able to stop "potentially a nuclear war" between India and Pakistan.

"I think the deal I'm most proud of is the fact that we're dealing with India, we're dealing with Pakistan, and we were able to stop potentially a nuclear war through trade as opposed to through bullets," he said during a press conference in the Oval Office last Friday.

"It was getting very bad. It was getting very nasty. They are both nuclear powers," he said.  

"We can't trade with people that are shooting at each other and potentially using nuclear weapons," he added.

President Trump also said that leaders in India and Pakistan are "great leaders" and "they understood, and they agreed, and that all stopped." 

India-Pakistan Tensions

Tensions between India and Pakistan have increased following the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam on April 22, which left 26 people dead.

India, after finding cross-border links to the attack, launched Operation Sindoor on May 7 and struck terror camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

Pakistan then launched a massive missile and drone attack, but the threats were thwarted. 

In retaliation, Indian forces struck airfields in Pakistan. A ceasefire on May 10 ended the hostilities.

India has maintained that the ceasefire was agreed upon following direct talks between the Directors General of Military Operations (DGMOs) of the two militaries.