Written by Shubhajit RoyNew Delhi | September 17, 2025 04:00 AM IST 4 min readIndia has categorically told the United States that any dialogue between New Delhi and Islamabad has to be held at a “bilateral” level, Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar has said.In an interview to Al Jazeera aired on Monday, when asked if Islamabad wanted involvement of a third party, Dar said: “Well, we don’t mind, but India has been categorically saying that it is bilateral, so we don’t mind bilateral…when the ceasefire offer came through Secretary Rubio (US Secretary of State Marco Rubio) to me on 10th of May, around 8.17 am… I was told that there would very soon be a dialogue between you (Pakistan) and India at an independent place.”“When we met on July 25 for a bilateral meeting, myself with Secretary Rubio in Washington, I asked what happened to the dialogue.. He said India says that it is a bilateral issue…So we are not begging for anything…any country, we want dialogue… We are a peace-loving country. We believe that is the way forward. But obviously it takes two to tango. So unless India wishes to have dialogue, we don’t wish to force them,” Dar said.Dar’s comments are in line with India’s traditional position since the Simla agreement of 1972, when the two sides decided that all issues between them are to be dealt with at a bilateral level. This was reiterated in 1999, during the Lahore declaration, when then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee travelled to Lahore by bus and met then Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.This also flies in the face of the US administration, led by President Donald Trump, wading into bilateral issues. Trump has repeatedly claimed that he brokered the ceasefire between India and Pakistan in May, and that his posturing on trade deals had forced both countries to stop the hostilities.This was contradicted by India, including in a phone call between Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 17 this year. Modi had told Trump that at no point was there any discussion, at any level, on an India-US trade deal, or any proposal for mediation by the US between India and Pakistan.ExplainedIndia has maintained that all issues with Pakistan are to be dealt with at a bilateral level, and contradicted US President Donald Trump’s repeated claims of having brokered a ceasefire between the two sides in May.“Prime Minister Modi clearly conveyed to President Trump that at no point during this entire sequence of events was there any discussion, at any level, on an India-US trade deal, or any proposal for a mediation by the US between India and Pakistan. The discussion to cease military action took place directly between India and Pakistan through the existing channels of communication between the two armed forces, and it was initiated at Pakistan’s request. Prime Minister Modi firmly stated that India does not and will never accept mediation. There is complete political consensus in India on this matter,” Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri had said then, giving a readout of the 35-minute phone conversation between the two leaders.Story continues below this adBut that has not stopped Trump and senior members of his administration, including Rubio, from claiming that the hostilities were paused due to US intervention.In a statement on May 10, Rubio had said India and Pakistan “have agreed… to start talks on a broad set of issues at a neutral site”.In August, Dar had said that “Pakistan did not ask anyone to arrange talks with India”. “Pakistan is ready for comprehensive talks with India, including on the Kashmir issue,” he had said.After the Pahalgam terror attack in April, India had launched Operation Sindoor against terror targets in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and Pakistan in May, following which both countries launched retaliatory strikes at each other for three days before suspension of hostilities. Shubhajit Roy, Diplomatic Editor at The Indian Express, has been a journalist for more than 25 years now. Roy joined The Indian Express in October 2003 and has been reporting on foreign affairs for more than 17 years now. Based in Delhi, he has also led the National government and political bureau at The Indian Express in Delhi — a team of reporters who cover the national government and politics for the newspaper. He has got the Ramnath Goenka Journalism award for Excellence in Journalism ‘2016. He got this award for his coverage of the Holey Bakery attack in Dhaka and its aftermath. He also got the IIMCAA Award for the Journalist of the Year, 2022, (Jury’s special mention) for his coverage of the fall of Kabul in August 2021 — he was one of the few Indian journalists in Kabul and the only mainstream newspaper to have covered the Taliban’s capture of power in mid-August, 2021. ... Read MoreStay updated with the latest - Click here to follow us on Instagram© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd