06 June, 2025:
All-party delegation led by Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor met US Vice President JD Vance in Washington DC on Thursday. The theme of the high-level dialogue was cooperation in the counter-terrorism domain, following the recent Pahalgam terror attack and India’s military response, Operation Sindoor.
The delegation, during their meeting with US Vice President, cleared the air around US President Donald Trump’s claim of mediating between the India-Pakistan crisis, said Tharoor.
"The meeting with Vice President Vance was outstanding. Very clear. We made our position amply clear on this question of mediation. Vance fully understood our points. The main point is that mediation implies an equivalence between two parties and there can be no equivalence between terrorists and their victims, between those who are offering safe havens to terrorists and the multiparty democracy," the Congress MP said.
According to the Congress Senior leader, two primary goals defined the delegation's efforts: explaining the necessity and context behind Operation Sindoor and reinforcing bilateral relations with the countries visited.
"At the end of the day, two satisfactions. One, I believe we got our message across about what happened in Pahalgam and about Operation Sindoor and why it was necessary. Secondly, we used the opportunity to reaffirm the importance of relations with India with each of these countries," he further stated.
The meeting with US Vice President Vance marked the conclusion of a two-week diplomatic outreach by the Indian delegation spanning several countries. Leading Group 5 of India’s all-party delegation, Tharoor described the five-day US visit as a “real success.” The US leg of the tour was part of a wider diplomatic initiative that also took the delegation to Guyana, Panama, Colombia, and Brazil.
The delegation included MPs across party lines, such as Sarfaraz Ahmad, Ganti Harish, Madhur Balayogi, Shashank Mani Tripathi, Bhubaneswar Kalita, Milind Deora, Tejasvi Surya and India’s former ambassador to the US, Taranjit Sandhu.
