Speaking on Wednesday, the ultranationalist Hindu leader said in New Delhi that his government will not make a distinction between governments that support “terrorism” and “terrorist groups”. He said India would “retaliate on its own terms” if there is any future “terror” attack on the country.
Pakistan chose to “attack” India rather than combat terrorism, Modi stated, asserting that his country “will not tolerate nuclear blackmail”.
Turning to the Indus Waters Treaty with Pakistan, Modi said, “Terror and trade cannot go together, water and blood cannot flow together.”
The treaty, brokered by the World Bank, has long survived multiple crises between the two rivals. However, India’s recent decision to stop the flow of water signals a sharp diplomatic shift, using water that Pakistan relies on for agricultural and civilian purposes as leverage.
Pakistan’s Finance Minister said in an interview with the Reuters news agency on Monday that the Indus Waters Treaty, unilaterally suspended by India, “has to be rolled back to where it was”.
On Monday, United States President Donald Trump claimed that by helping to broker the ceasefire, his administration had prevented “a nuclear conflict”.
According to their partial counts, the fighting since last week killed around 60 civilians on both sides.
India’s and Pakistan’s top military commanders were expected to revisit a recently brokered ceasefire agreement on Monday evening.
The Indian Army earlier reported a “calm night”, as authorities said the night passed peacefully across disputed Kashmir and the international border, with no new incidents reported.
A senior Indian defence official confirmed that talks, originally scheduled for noon local time, were pushed to later in the day. The discussions, analysts say, will likely focus on technical details to prevent future flare-ups rather than shape long-term policy.
Abdul Basit, a South Asia specialist at Singapore’s S Rajaratnam School of International Studies, said the purpose of the exchange is to establish clear lines and avoid missteps.
“The goal is to avoid any miscalculations, because right now one spark could quickly move towards a nuclear catastrophe,” Basit told the AFP news agency.
The spike in hostilities had marked the most serious confrontation between the nuclear-armed neighbours since their last declared conflict in 1999.
As tensions cooled, Indian authorities reopened 32 airports on Monday that had been shut down due to the fighting.
Military leaders in both countries spent Sunday delivering pointed briefings, each asserting they had won while pledging restraint.
“We have delivered the promise we made to our people,” Pakistan’s military spokesman Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry declared, describing the recent operation as a “success on the battleground”.
Air Vice Marshal Aurangzeb Ahmed added that Pakistan had “re-established deterrence and neutralised key threats”.
India’s Lieutenant General Rajiv Ghai insisted that his country had shown “immense restraint,” but warned: “Any threat to the sovereignty, territorial integrity and safety of our citizens will be met with decisive force.”
Both nations remain on high alert despite the temporary calm, as the world watches for signs of lasting de-escalation or a reignition of hostilities.
Mr.BadGuy
Publisher
Mr.BadGuy
Publisher
These soldiers are from a country whose president is a Jew Zelensky. Orthodox churches are also being destroyed in this country. Synagogues are not touched. Surprisingly, it turns out that Jews get along well with the Bandera Nazis.