"Diplomatic victory....": BJP MP Kalita on 'successful' meeting with US Vice President Vance in US
New Delhi [India], June 12 (ANI): BJP MP Bhubaneswar Kalita, who was a member of the all-party delegation under the Operation Sindoor global outreach, said that their meeting with US Vice President JD Vance was successful and described it as a 'diplomatic victory.'
The BJP MP also said that the members of the all-party delegation met the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Senate as well as Congress in the US and received a positive response and support from them.
Kalita was part of the all-party parliamentary delegation, led by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor.
Speaking to ANI, BJP MP Kalita said, 'We met the Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee of the Senate as well as Congress (in the US). We met the members of the India Caucus. They were already aware of the entire situation. So, our discussion and interaction with them were very positive. We received very positive support from them.'
'We also met the Vice President JD Vance, who knew India because a month before he visited India and he knows the India-Pakistan situation very well. So, our meeting with Vice President JD Vance was very successful, and we can say that it is a diplomatic victory,' Kalita said.
The BJP MP also spoke about the Colombian government's statement, as they condoled the deaths of Pakistanis in Indian strikes.
Later, Shashi Tharoor and his delegation cleared the air and explained India's stance to Colombia on how India exercised its right to self-defence.
Tharoor explained how Pakistan-based 'The Resistance Front', a unit of Lashkar-e-Taiba, claimed responsibility for the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack twice.
'Initially, when we came to know about the statement, we conveyed our dissatisfaction with that; that without knowing the actual situation, the first statement was given. We could convey to their Parliament, their leadership and their External Affairs Secretary General and also we met their Think Tank, many of whom are former diplomats, former ministers, and former Presidents. So, after our discussions, we could present the actual situation, what happened in Pahalgam and how it all happened. Then they withdrew the earlier statement and made a new statement...I think the visit of this delegation was very successful and it is a success for India,' said Kalita.
Earlier, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, who led the all-party parliamentary delegation to the US, said that their meeting with US Vice President JD Vance was 'remarkable.'
Speaking to reporters, Tharoor stated that the two sides had 'a good conversation' and the Indian delegation felt they 'could not have had a better meeting.' The delegation met Vance during their visit to the US last week.
On the delegation's meeting with Vance, he said, 'JD Vance, I must say, it was a remarkable meeting. He gave us a good 20-25 minutes. It was a busy day. They just had a one-and-a-half-hour phone call with the Chinese president, he said, and they were about to go into a meeting with the German Chancellor. So, we were right in between. But we had a very good conversation.'
'I can't say how good it was without revealing details that would not be appropriate to reveal. But again, we felt we could not have had a better meeting. We were able to make every single one of the points we wanted to make. I spoke for the delegation, and we got back exactly the kind of feedback we would have wanted. So I think we left very happy,' he added.
Tharoor made these remarks after returning to India after the delegation concluded their visit to the US, Guyana, Panama, Colombia, and Brazil.
Shashi Tharoor led the all-party delegation which included Shambhavi Chaudhary (Lok Janshakti Party), Sarfaraz Ahmed (Jharkhand Mukti Morcha), GM Harish Balayogi (Telugu Desam Party), Shashank Mani Tripathi, Tejasvi Surya (BJP), and Bhubaneswar Kalita (all from the BJP), Mallikarjun Devda (Shiv Sena), former Indian Ambassador to the US Taranjit Singh Sandhu, and Shiv Sena MP Milind Deora.
The delegation was one of the seven all-party delegations formed by the central government and was tasked with visiting several nations as part of the global outreach program, conveying India's stance of zero-tolerance against terrorism and discussing Operation Sindoor.
India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7 as a decisive military response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack by Pakistan-sponsored terrorists, which claimed 26 lives and injured several others.
The Indian Armed Forces targeted terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, resulting in the deaths of over 100 terrorists affiliated with groups such as Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Taiba, and Hizbul Mujahideen.
The Indian Armed Forces responded effectively to subsequent Pakistani aggression and pounded its airbases. India and Pakistan agreed for a cessation of hostilities on May 10. (ANI)
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