US told us India not ready for third-party mediation on truce, admits Pak minister

Pakistan’s foreign minister Ishaq Dar has disclosed that the US conveyed to Islamabad in July — two months after the four-day India-Pakistan skirmish — that New Delhi was “unwilling” to allow the involvement of any third country in discussions.

This marks the first public acknowledgment by a Pakistan minister of India’s consistent position that all issues with Islamabad must be resolved bilaterally.

“Incidentally, when the ceasefire offer came through US Secretary Marco Rubio to me on the morning of May 10, I was told there would soon be dialogue between us and India at a neutral venue. When I met Rubio in Washington on July 25, I asked what happened to those talks. He said India maintains it is a bilateral issue,” Dar said in an interview with a media house.

On May 7, India launched Operation Sindoor, carrying out precision strikes on nine terror camps across Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). The action triggered a four-day skirmish between the two nuclear-armed neighbours that ended on May 10 after the Directors General of Military Operations (DGMOs) of both countries agreed to a ceasefire.

The same day, Rubio announced on X that India and Pakistan had agreed to “an immediate ceasefire and start talks on a broad set of issues at a neutral site”. However, New Delhi later downplayed any US role, firmly rejecting suggestions of outside mediation. Even as US President Donald Trump repeatedly claimed to have “brokered” the truce, India vehemently denied the assertion.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, during the monsoon session of Parliament, had clarified that India accepted the ceasefire only after a formal request came from Pakistan. He dismissed any suggestion of external influence, particularly from Washington, in the decision-making process.

Responding to questions on whether a back channel with New Delhi existed and if third-party mediation was acceptable, Dar said: “We don’t mind, but India has categorically been stating it’s bilateral. So we don’t mind bilateral, but the dialogue has to be comprehensive — on terrorism, on trade, on economy, on Jammu and Kashmir — all the subjects we both have been discussing.”

He stressed that Islamabad was not pressing for talks, but remained open to engagement. “We are not begging for anything. If any country wants dialogue, we are happy, we are welcome... But obviously it takes two to tango. Unless India wishes to have dialogue, we can’t force it,” he said.