US President Donald Trump’s remarks about his role in ending hostilities between India and Pakistan have caused a rift with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, according to analysts.
A week after Trump announced a surprise ceasefire between the two nuclear-armed neighbours, New Delhi and Washington are at odds over how the truce was achieved. Indian foreign policy expert Harsh V Pant said that the US administration believed that intervening at this stage could yield political gains by highlighting Trump’s diplomatic role.
Pant, a researcher at the New Delhi-based Observer Research Foundation, added, “That was the motivation and, to some extent, the reason Trump rushed to announce the ceasefire.”
The latest conflict erupted on May 7, when India launched air strikes against what it called “terrorist camps” in Pakistan following a deadly attack by militants in Indian-administered Kashmir that had left 26 people dead. New Delhi blamed Islamabad for supporting the militants behind the attack – an allegation Pakistan denied.
Trump announced the ceasefire four days after a series of missile, drone, and artillery strikes by both sides that killed around 70 people, including dozens of civilians, and forced thousands to flee. Trump later boasted that he had pulled India and Pakistan “back from the brink”, telling Fox News on Friday that it was “a bigger success than I’ll ever get credit for.”
However, New Delhi rejected those claims, as they contradict India’s long-standing policy of rejecting any foreign mediation in its disputes with Islamabad. Both India and Pakistan claim full sovereignty over Kashmir, which remains divided. India views the Himalayan region as a domestic matter and sees outside mediation as a sign of weakness.
In his first speech after the ceasefire, Modi made no mention of any US role. His government has since emphasised that talks with Pakistan are “purely bilateral.” India also quickly denied Trump’s suggestion that trade pressure played a role in speeding up the ceasefire. The External Affairs Ministry said this week, “Trade was not discussed” in talks with US officials.
Manoj Joshi, another researcher at the Observer Research Foundation, said Trump’s rhetoric “is unsettling” for India, which, due to its strategic location and large market, is a key US ally. However, India is being very cautious as it negotiates a trade deal with Washington that would exempt it from heavy tariffs. “We (India) want things to go in a different direction,” Joshi said. He added that this is also a domestic political issue.
The Congress Party, India’s largest opposition group, said Trump’s announcement overshadowed Modi’s speech, which it criticised as “long overdue.” The party demanded an all-party meeting to clarify whether India was changing its stance on accepting third-party mediation.
India and Pakistan agreed in the 1970s to resolve their disputes peacefully through bilateral negotiations.
South Asia expert Pramit Pal Chaudhuri, from Eurasia Group, said, “So, it’s only natural that India responded and tactfully denied Trump’s claims,” seeking not to damage its ties with Washington.
Chaudhuri noted that Islamabad welcomed Trump’s supposed mediation, as it “needed a US intervention to find a way out of the conflict.”
Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar reaffirmed Thursday that “our relations and dealings with Pakistan will be bilateral, and strictly bilateral.” Yet on the same day, Trump reiterated from Qatar his role in mediating the ceasefire and using trade as a tool to achieve it.
&uuid=(email))