David Vance is a British writer, commentator and renowned expert of International Relations based in Northern Ireland. In this exclusive interview, he spoke to author and columnist Arun Anand based in New Delhi (India), about how the world is looking at the recent India-Pakistan conflict from May 7 to May 10. Here are the excerpts:

Arun Anand: India had launched operation SINDOOR following the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22. India initially targeted terror camps in Pakistan and Pakistan occupied Jammu and Kashmir. From your perspective in the UK and also from a global perspective, what, do you understand to be the primary objectives of this operation, and how do you assess its execution in terms of precision and effectiveness, especially given India has claimed that it has targeted specific terrorist infrastructure?

David Vance: That’s a good question. First of all, I absolutely welcomed Operation SINDOOR and in my opinion, it’s probably overdue because Pakistan has been consistently an aggressor, a terrorist state. It’s been conducting acts of terrorism against India. India has already been very reserved and not responding, but it had to and it absolutely was right that it did respond in the aftermath of the mass terrorism attack at, at Pahalgam. That was obviously what triggered it. And India’s action was very timely because all around the world, world powers talk about terrorism and how awful it is. But if you don’t respond to it, you’re going to get it more often. I was delighted when it became clear that India was going to give a response and that brings me to the second part of your question.

You know, what do I think of the response? I think the response was so good on several fronts. Number one, it I do believe that it hit a good part of the terrorist infrastructure within Pakistan. I can’t believe it was all taken out. But it’s seen that a significant degradation of the Pakistani terrorist infrastructure took place along with the killing of..I would think about 140 or so, terrorists. So, on that sort of very logistical basis, I think it, it worked. And above all, it delivered a very strong message to Pakistan and to its handlers in China, maybe in Turkey as well. And that is, India will not tolerate your terrorism any more. And as I say, I don’t think India should ever have tolerated it.

But it’s really good to have seen this response. And I was so pleased that India responded to and that too with precision targeting specific, terrorist, locations. It was also important that, it didn’t escalate it more than what was required. I think under Prime Minister Modi India is becoming a world power, militarily as well as economically and in other areas.

This was to me a great, example of Indian power in action against Pakistan. And, it was, I think, extremely successful on just about every level I can think of.

Arun Anand: It is also said that during the recent India-Pakistan conflict the world witnessed the first, drone war between the two nuclear powers. What were the key turning points in this conflict? How does the international community look at Pakistan’s threat of using nuclear weapons?

David Vance: Pakistan’s a nuclear power. So therefore, we’ve got to be so careful. We can’t go too far; Otherwise it could end very badly for the world. I think that Pakistan uses the nuclear option as blackmail. So like Israel, India has to accept the acts of terror.

So, in this case, I think India has broken the mold and it sent the clear message that, well, we won’t accept it any more. And furthermore, India has just demonstrated to Pakistan as well as China that it has got the military capability, operational effectiveness and the political determination to actually go in and hit out the terrorists without mass killing of, of civilians.

It’s so difficult for countries that are under attack for terrorist attack to operate. Israel has this problem as well. It’s got an issue with Hamas, but Hamas hides behind, civilians. I mean, they just do. And that makes it very difficult........

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