TRIBUTE TO CHRISTCHURCH VICTIMS

separately confirmed a specific Indian threat to use six missiles on targets inside Pakistan.

They did not specify who delivered the threat or who received it, but the minister said Indian and Pakistani intelligence agencies “were communicating with each other during the fight, and even now they are communicating with each other”.

Pakistan said it would counter any Indian missile attacks with many more launches of its own, the minister said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“We said if you will fire one missile, we will fire three. Whatever India will do, we will respond three times to that,” he said. programme.

Bolton was on the phone with Doval on the night of Feb 27 itself, and into the early hours of Feb 28, the second day of the Trump-Kim talks, in an attempt to defuse the situation, the Western diplomat in New Delhi and the Indian official said.

Later, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who was also in Hanoi, also called on both sides to seek a way out of the crisis.

“Pompeo led diplomatic engagement directly, and that played an essential role in de-escalating the tensions between the two sides,” State Department deputy spokesman Robert Palladino said in a briefing in Washington on March 5.

Pompeo spoke to Doval, the Indian and Pakistani Foreign Ministers Sushma Swaraj and Shah Mahmood Qureshi, respectively, Palladino said.

US Indo-Pacific Command Admiral Phil Davidson said in Singapore last week that he had been in touch with the Indian navy chief, Sunil Lanba, throughout the crisis.

US efforts were focused on securing the quick release of the Indian pilot and winning an assurance from India it would pull back from the threat to fire rockets, the Western diplomat in New Delhi and officials in Washington said.

“We made a lot of effort to get the international community involved in encouraging the two sides to de-escalate the situation because we realised how dangerous it was,” said a senior Trump administration official.

The Pakistani minister said China and the United Arab Emirates also intervened.

The government of the UAE said Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed alNahyan held talks with both Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan.