Trump praises India, Pakistan leaders for truce

Full-scale war was averted between India and Pakistan when they agreed to a United States-mediated ceasefire even as fighting between the traditional South Asian rivals was ratcheting up since Wednesday (May 7) when India struck at nine terrorist camps in Pakistan. India was responding to the terrorists killing 26 civilians in Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir on April 22.

The two sides were firing drone bombs at each other across the border, in which civilians were killed on both sides. India said that it had targeted only the terrorist bases. The United States had quietly done a back-channel exercise with Secretary of State Marc Rubio talking to Ishaq Dar, foreign minister of Pakistan and Dr. S.Jaishanker, External Affairs Minister of India.

The Americans said that the decision of the ceasefire was announced by the two sides themselves. President Donald Trump wrote on his social media portal, Truth Social: “After a long night of talks mediated by the United States, I am pleased to announce that India and Pakistan have agreed to a FULL AND IMMEDIATE CEASEFIRE. Congratulations to both Countries on using Common Sense and Great Intelligence.”

However, there were explosions in Srinagar, the capital of Jammu and Kashmir in India and in other places along the border, and this is being seen as violation of the ceasefire agreed to by Pakistan. Indian Minister for External Affairs said that India keeps its options to counter terrorist attacks.

The US-mediated ceasefire may appear to be fragile, and that it is being broken from the moment that it has been agreed to by both India and Pakistan. It is however interesting that Pakistan sought the ceasefire a day after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had released an economic bailout of $1 billion. India had objected to the relief package and abstained from the voting.

It would appear that the US could have asked Pakistan to agree to the ceasefire in return for the IMF bailout. This is in the realm of speculation, but a connection can be made. There is also the argument that India could have agreed to the American offer of ceasefire because India is in the process of working out a trade deal with the United States and get a better deal over the tariffs that Trump seeks to impose on India.

What is surprising about the development is the fact that two days ago, Vice President J.D. Vance had said in a television news interview that the fight between India and Pakistan was “none of our business” though he did add that the US would want the two countries to settle the issues through diplomatic dialogue. So, he did keep the door open for American mediation in a way because the implication was that Washington would want to push the two rivals to the negotiating table.

The American foreign policy has been flip-flopping quite a bit ever since Trump was sworn in as president for a second term in January. At one level, Trump wants to pull back Americans from all the trouble spots, including the one in Ukraine. On the other hand, he had been coaxing and nudging to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin to agree to a ceasefire.

And though he failed in his attempts to end the war in Ukraine, he managed to sign an agreement with Ukraine over rare earth minerals. He wants America to engage with the world so that America gains, and at the same time he wants to focus on domestic policies rather than foreign policy. The reason Trump pushed America into the mediatory process with India and Pakistan is that he would not want China to gain an upper hand in South Asia because of American absence.