NEW DELHI:In the backdrop of US President Donald Trump’s repeated claims that he used trade to stop the India-Pakistan military conflict in May, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Monday cited his conversations with various echelons of the government to state that neither was there any threat to use trade to promote peace nor was any effort made to tell India “to do this or do that”.

Tharoor, at a talk organised by the NGO CUTS International, reiterated his stance on Trump’s claims on Operation Sindoor, which have been at variance with the official position of the Congress.

Asked about Trump’s claims and the argument that he wants a diplomatic acknowledgement from India on his role, Tharoor said, “I was asked about it when I led a multi-party delegation to Washington. I said India never needed persuading… We signalled from the very first strike on the night of May 6-7 that we were not interested in a protracted conflict with Pakistan.