Former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has claimed that the then Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj told him that Pakistan was planning a nuclear strike after the Balakot surgical strike in February 2019. According to Pompeo, Sushma Swaraj has said that in view of this, India is also preparing an aggressive response.
In his new book Never Give An Inch: Fighting for the America I Love, launched on Tuesday, Pompeo said the incident occurred while he was on a trip to Hanoi for the February 27-28 US-North Korea summit. After that his team worked overnight with India and Pakistan to avert this crisis. The former US Secretary of State said, “I don’t think the world knows how close India-Pakistan tensions came to a nuclear attack in February 2019.”
The former US diplomat writes in the book, “I don’t think the world knows exactly how close the India-Pakistan rivalry came to a nuclear strike in February 2019. The truth is, I don’t even know the exact answer.” All I know is that it was very close.”
However, at present there has been no comment from the Ministry of External Affairs on Pompeo’s claims. Let us tell you that in response to the Pulwama terror attack, in February 2019, the Indian Army attacked and destroyed the Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist training camp in Balakot, Pakistan. An F-16 aircraft of the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) then shot down a MiG-21 Bison in a dogfight and held Group Captain Abhinandan Varthaman hostage for 60 hours.
Pompeo said, “I was in Hanoi on February 27-28 to reduce tensions between the US and North Korea. And Pakistan.” Pompeo wrote, “I will never forget that night in Hanoi, Vietnam. Talking to North Korea about nuclear weapons was not enough. Started threatening. “It took me a lot of effort to persuade Sushma Swaraj to do nothing for the time being and give the US some time to resolve the whole issue,” he said.