By S N Misra
Addressing the Joint Session of the US Congress in June, 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared that India had overcome the “hesitations of history”. And there had been serious and long-standing “hesitations’’ ranging from the support by the US to Pakistan in the UN Security Council on the Kashmir issue, threats and intimidation in the Bay of Bengal resorted to by the US in 1971 during the India-Pakistan war leading to the independence of Bangladesh, stoppage of supply of nuclear fuel after India’s 1974 peaceful nuclear explosion, wide-ranging sanctions against India in the aftermath of India’s nuclear tests in May 1998 etc. Going somewhat lyrical in his Address in 2016, PM Modi stated that “a new symphony is at play in the India-US bilateral relations”.’
This symphony has received a rude jolt by the comments of US President Donald Trump as also of Secretary of State Marco Rubio on the conflict that erupted between India and Pakistan in the wake of Pakistan sponsored terrorist attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir on April 22 killing 26 innocent civilians, 25 of them Hindus, because of the religion they professed. As retribution to the escalation by Pakistan in Pahalgam, India, in the early morning of May 7, 2025, destroyed nine of its terrorist strongholds and hideouts, five in the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and four in the heart of Pakistan in Punjab including Bahwalpur, the headquarters of Masood Azhar’s Jaish-e-Mohammad, and Muridke, the stronghold of Hafez Sayeed’s Lashkar-e-Tayyeba.
At about 5:30 pm on May 10, 2025, a message surfaced on Trump’s Truth Social platform claiming that “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”. Trump praised the two countries for “using Common Sense and Great Intelligence”.
Marco Rubio followed the lead of his President by writing on X a little later the same day: “Over the past 48 hours, @VP Vance and I have engaged with senior Indian and Pakistani officials, including Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Shehbaz Sharif, External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, Chief of Army Staff Asim Munir, and National Security Advisors Ajit Doval and Asim Malik. I am pleased to announce the Governments of India and Pakistan have agreed to an immediate ceasefire and to start talks on a broad set of issues at a neutral site.” He gratuitously commended “Prime Ministers Modi and Sharif on their wisdom, prudence, and statesmanship in choosing the path of peace”.
Trump didn’t stop at this. He compounded his earlier error the next day by appreciating the “strong and unwaveringly powerful leadership of India and Pakistan for having the strength, wisdom and fortitude to fully know and understand that it was time to stop the current aggression that could have led to the death and destruction of so many, and so much”. “Millions of good and innocent people could have died! Your legacy is greatly enhanced by your brave actions. I am proud that the USA was able to help you arrive at this historic and heroic decision. While not even discussed, I am going to increase trade substantially with both of these great nations. Additionally, I will work with both of you to see if after a thousand years a solution can be arrived at concerning Kashmir. God Bless the leadership of India and Pakistan on a job well done.’’
On his first visit after assuming office to Saudi Arabia with the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman in the audience, Trump stated that he had “successfully brokered a historic ceasefire to stop the escalating violence between India and Pakistan, and I used trade to a large extent to do it”. He added: “And they both have very powerful leaders, very strong leaders, good leaders, smart leaders. And it all stopped. Hopefully, it’ll remain that way, but it all stopped.” Trump singled out Marco Rubio for leading US efforts in the India-Pakistan situation, saying “millions of people could have died from that conflict that started off small and was getting bigger and bigger and bigger by the day”. “And I used trade to a large extent to do it. And I said, ‘Fellows, come on. Let’s make a deal. Let’s do some trading. Let’s not trade nuclear missiles. Let’s trade the things that you make so beautifully.’’
And he said it again a fifth time on May 14 in an interview to Fox News that he brokered the ceasefire between India and Pakistan.
Trump has, by his uncalled for and unsubstantiated remarks, done great dis-service to the cause of India-US partnership. The first grave error he made was to jump the gun and announce the ceasefire agreement without waiting for India to announce it. This obviously stemmed from his desire to win global applause and acclaim and appear influential for the cause of peace on the international arena. Possibly he has illusions of being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize which his predecessor Barack Obama had received, without in any significant or concrete manner contributing to global peace.
It made the matters more objectionable because there was little factual accuracy in his claim. US contribution to the ceasefire was minimal, if any. Trump’s claim went counter to the long-stated policy of India that it would not countenance any third-party mediation between India and Pakistan. In the current case also, India asserted shortly after Trump’s announcement on May 10 that the ceasefire had been reached directly between India and Pakistan when the Pakistan Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) called his Indian counterpart and pleaded for a ceasefire, a request, after consideration, India acceded to. In his press conference on May 13, the official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs categorically stated that the ceasefire was agreed to in direct talks between the senior military officers of India and Pakistan and that no third country was involved.
This became absolutely clear when Modi, addressing the nation on May 12, did not make any reference to America as far as the ceasefire between India and Pakistan is concerned. In his address, he laid out a new normal for dealing with terrorism from Pakistan. He said that any act of terror will be treated as an act of war and will be responded to as such. Moreover, terror and trade, and terror and talks will not go together. Also, blood and water will not flow together. In a pointed rebuttal to Rubio’s assertion that “talks on a broad set of issues at a neutral site” will take place, PM Modi made it very clear that the only conversation with Pakistan will be on stopping terrorism from Pakistan, and on the return of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) to India. It has also been categorically stated that there will be no re-think on the suspension of the Indus Water Treaty till Pakistan credibly and irrevocably abjures its support to Terrorism against India. This position was reiterated by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on May 15, 2025.
Trump committed several more blunders in his assertions. His tone while referring to Modi (and Pakistan PM Sharif) in his statements and messages was patronising as if he was disciplining two wayward children. He equated India and Pakistan while it is clear that Pakistan is the perpetrator of terrorism and India the victim. After the Pahalgam attack, the whole world stood with India that the victims of the barbarous massacre should be given justice and the perpetrators be made to pay for this heinous crime.
Trump’s messages on the Truth Social platform and other statements sound all the more jarring as during Modi’s visit to the White house on February 13, 2025, the two leaders agreed that in addition to the extradition of Tahawwur Rana, a Pakistani-origin Canadian citizen and mastermind of the 26/11 Mumbai terrorist attack, they will push back against cross-border terrorism that India faces from Pakistan and act against activities of JeM, LeT, ISIS, Al Qaida to prevent heinous acts like the attacks in Mumbai on 26/11 and the Abbey Gate bombing in Afghanistan on August 26, 2021.
In addition, during his first term, in his first tweet of 2018 on January 1, 2018, Trump had written, “The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools. They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!”
It is internationally known that Pakistan is the epicentre of terror. Most terror acts around the world have a link to Pakistan including the 9/11 attacks, the London tube bombings, including innumerable attacks in India. Neither Trump nor Rubio, in their wisdom, have referred to Pakistan’s long history of support to global terrorism and cross-border terrorism against India. This will further encourage the jihadi elements in Pakistan’s army and its spy agency the Inter-Services Intelligence to launch more acts of terrorism against India as well as globally.
One of the most serious blunders committed by Trump is to suggest that he will try to negotiate the Kashmir issue between the two countries. He made this faux pas during his first term also. While speaking with the then Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, he wrongly claimed that Modi had asked him to negotiate on the issue of Kashmir between the two countries. The US State Department had quickly sprung into action then to clarify that Kashmir is a bilateral issue to be resolved through negotiations between India and Pakistan. It would be prudent for the US State Department to once again dissuade Trump from following this disastrous path. In any case, India has made it amply clear that the only remaining issue on the Kashmir question is the return of PoK by Pakistan to India. No other talks on Kashmir are necessary or will be held. Trump’s offer to negotiate can only further encourage the Pakistan army, ISI and terrorist groups supported, funded, financed and trained by them to launch more terrorist attacks against India which will invite a crippling and debilitating action against these terror groups as well as the Pakistani military establishment.
Trump has also made his ignorance about the Kashmir issue quite evident by stating that it is a 1000-year-old conflict. He needs to be given some history lessons by the State Department to inform him that the issue emerged only in 1947 when Pakistani army in the guise of tribesmen attacked the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir.
Trump has also stated that he has used the instrument of trade to pressurise India and Pakistan to accede to the ceasefire. This is patently untrue. In his own first message, he states that trade was not discussed, and then, in his subsequent statements and comments, he comes up with the idea of increasing trade with both the countries. India does not wish to be placed in a situation where it is pressurised to change its sovereign decisions related to its national interest. If Trump can use trade, he could also use the instrument of supply of defence technology, defence equipment or critical and emerging technologies in future. By making statements like this, he is significantly eroding the trust level between India and the US. He has dealt a severe jolt to the high level of confidence achieved between the two countries over the last 25 years. With assiduous work by the US administration, it will take some time for the trust to be restored between the two countries.
Trump has, through his statements and Truth Social posts done huge harm and damage to the rapidly expanding and evolving bilateral relationship which PM Modi had termed as an “indispensable partnership” and a “partnership of trust”. The US needs to work hard to remove the cobwebs of doubt and misgivings to restore the relations to the earlier status of trust and confidence.
