Shashi Tharoor snubs Trump’s ‘mediation’ claim in India-Pakistan ceasefire

New Delhi: Congress MP and former diplomat Shashi Tharoor on Sunday said US President Donald Trump taking credit for ceasefire during India Pakistan conflict was ‘very unfortunate way of proceeding’.

Thiruvananthapuram MP’s response came hours after his party leader Rahul Gandhi claimed that Trump first announced the ceasefire.

‘I think that's a very unfortunate way of proceeding. I have certainly never seen anything like that in international diplomacy,’ Shashi Tharoor told NDTV.

Tharoor pointed out that it was not mediation as claimed by Trump but the US efforts at playing a constructive role during the conflict.

In the thick of the tense situation, Trump on Saturday claimed that the US had mediated between India and Pakistan for an immediate ceasefire.

Tharoor made it clear that foreign ministers of both countries were posting online about conversations taking place with foreign leaders over the past few days.

Explaining the situation further, Tharoor said: ‘Let me be blunt about it...Jaishankar spoke to Secretary Rubio. Then he (Rubio) spoke with the foreign minister of Pakistan. These kinds of contacts were going on throughout these three or four days of the conflict. But that doesn't mean that India was requesting mediation.’

The conversation with the US, according to the former diplomat, was not mediation but the Americans were trying to play a ‘constructive role’, adding ‘If they or any other country did that, (that's) great. Frankly, the US was not the only country. Jaishankar has been speaking to the foreign ministers of the UAE, UK, or France’.

The conversation between nations lead to apprise each country of the other’s side, he said adding ‘That is not the same as Trump claiming credit for mediation because India would have never sought mediation, doesn't mean mediation’.

‘I think would never accept the idea that we have in any way accepted foreign mediation in a conflict that we are perfectly capable of handling ourselves,’ Tharoor added.

Taking to his social media platform Truth Social, Donald Trump congratulated India and Pakistan on reaching a ceasefire and Trump claimed that it was mediated by the US.