External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has categorically stated that India and Pakistan were far away from a nuclear conflict during their recent military confrontation in the wake of the Pahalgam attack.

”Very, very far away. I’m frankly astonished by your question. We have terrorist targets. Those were very measured, carefully considered, and non-escalating steps. After that, the Pakistani military opened fire on us. We were able to show them that we could disable their air defense systems. Then the firing stopped at their request,” he told the questioner in an interview to German daily FAZ when asked how far the world was from a nuclear conflict between India and Pakistan.

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He said that at no point was a nuclear level reached. ”There is a narrative as if everything that happens in our part of the world leads directly to a nuclear problem. That disturbs me a lot because it encourages terrible activities like terrorism. If anything, much more is happening with the nuclear issue in your part of the world,” he added.

On whether the United States played any role in the ceasefire between India and Pakistan as Washington portrayed, Mr Jaishankar said the cessation of firing was agreed between the military commanders of both sides through direct contact. ”The morning before, we effectively hit and incapacitated Pakistan’s main airbases and air defense system. So, who should I thank for the cessation of hostilities? I thank the Indian military because it was the Indian military action that made Pakistan say: We are ready to stop,” he added.

Asked if China played a role in the conflict, he said, ”You know, many of the weapons systems that Pakistan has are of Chinese origin and the two countries are very close. You can draw your own conclusions from that.”

The minister said India did what it set out to do during the four-day conflict. India has sent a clear signal to the terrorists that there is a price to be paid for carrying out such attacks, as they did in Pahalgam in April.

”The firing was then started by the Pakistani military. We fired back in self-defense, and once the Pakistanis understood that they were taking a harmful course, we were able to stop firing. This situation has not changed for two weeks, that is the status,” he said.

Asked if India has been able to convince its partners about the link between Pakistan and the terrorists, he shot back,” Anyone who is not blind can see that the terrorist organisations are openly operating from the cities and towns of Pakistan. That is no secret. The UN Security Council terror list is full of Pakistani names and places, and these are the very places we have targeted. So please don’t think that something is only going on behind the scenes.”

He said that in Pakistan, terrorism is a very open business. A business supported, financed, organised, and used by the state and the military.