No third party mediation during Operation Sindoor: government officials refute intervention claims by China and U.S.

The government on Wednesday (December 31, 2025) refuted a statement by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi that China had “mediated” an end to the India-Pakistan conflict in May, repeating its rejection of similar assertions by U.S. President Donald Trump over the year. Although the Ministry of External Affairs did not put out a formal response to the speech by Mr. Wang where he had made the claim, officials said India’s position against any “third-party mediation” has not changed.

Mr. Trump has repeated his claim of mediating between the two countries using trade deals as leverage more than 60 times in the past seven months, including most recently during talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this week. Last week, the U.S. State Department gave White House official Ricky Gill its “Distinguished Action Award” for his contribution to “internal coordination and diplomatic outreach” during the India-Pakistan conflict this year.

When contacted, a senior MEA official said that India has consistently held that the ceasefire on May 10 was requested directly by Pakistan and accepted by India through the Director-General of Military Operations (DGMO) channel, and no other country had played a role in the outcome.

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“Please refer to our responses made earlier,” said another official, referring to the MEA’s statement on May 13 and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s telephone call with Mr. Trump on June 17, where Mr. Modi said that “at no point … was there any discussion, at any level, on an India-U.S. trade deal, or any proposal for a mediation by the U.S. between India and Pakistan”.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had however thanked the U.S., China and Saudi Arabia for their peace efforts at the time.

In his speech on Tuesday (December 30, 2025), Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi had praised China’s peace efforts to end a number of conflicts.

“To build peace that lasts, we have taken an objective and just stance, and focused on addressing both symptoms and root causes. Following this Chinese approach to settling hotspot issues, we mediated in northern Myanmar, the Iranian nuclear issue, the tensions between Pakistan and India, the issues between Palestine and Israel, and the recent conflict between Cambodia and Thailand,” Mr. Wang said, while delivering a keynote address at a symposium on the “International Situation and China’s Foreign Relations” looking back at Chinese diplomacy in 2025. He also said that China-India relations “showed a good momentum” during the year, referring to Mr. Modi’s visit to Tianjin for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meet and bilateral summit with China’s President Xi Jinping.

Also Read | Trump repeats claim of ending India-Pakistan conflict during Netanyahu meeting

Congress raises query

Reacting to Mr. Wang’s remarks, Congress MP and general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh criticised Mr. Modi for his “silence” on the issue.

“Given that China was decisively aligned with Pakistan [during Op Sindoor], Chinese claims of having mediated between India and Pakistan are concerning — not just because they directly contradict what the people of our country have been led to believe, but because they seem to make a joke of our national security itself,” Mr. Ramesh said in a social media statement, adding that “the people of India need clarity on what role China played in the abrupt halt to Operation Sindoor”.