S. Jaishankar has refuted Donald Trump's claims on mediation between the South Asian neighbors

Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar has refuted US President Donald Trump's assertion of using trade as leverage to negotiate a ceasefire between India and Pakistan during a military showdown in May.

Trump has repeatedly said that the US mediated between the South Asian neighbors when they were involved in a 4-day confrontation and offered more trade with both countries if they ceased hostilities. 

"I think the trade people are doing what the trade people should be doing, which is negotiate with numbers and lines and products and do their trade-offs," Jaishankar told Newsweek in an interview, when asked if trade talks were linked to the recent conflict in the subcontinent. "I think they are very professional and very, very focused about it."

The US and India are engaged in negotiations and racing to meet a July 9 deadline set by Trump, after which reciprocal tariffs will be imposed if an agreement is not reached. Speaking about the military confrontation with Pakistan, Jaishankar said that he was in the room when US Vice President J D Vance spoke to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the night of May 9, "saying that the Pakistanis would launch a very massive assault on India if we did not accept certain things."

He added that Modi told Vance that there would be a response from India. "This was the night before and the Pakistanis did attack us massively that night, we responded very quickly thereafter," he said. 

The Indian foreign minister who is in Washington for a meeting of foreign ministers of the so-called Quad, comprising India, the US, Japan, and Australia, said trade talks between New Delhi and Washington were progressing.

"We are in the middle, hopefully more than the middle, of a very intricate trade negotiation...we do think today that in trade, there will have to be some give and take," Jaishankar said in the Newsweek interview. "Just as people in the US have an opinion about India, Indians too have an opinion about the US. There will be some sort of middle ground, we just have to wait and watch the space for the next few days."

White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said on Monday that Washington and New Delhi were "finalizing" a trade deal.  

A potential trade agreement, however, still faces roadblocks.

On Monday, Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told newspaper Financial Express that even as the deal talks are on, India has stated that agriculture and dairy must be excluded from any tariff agreement.