America’s Trump card

The US-brokered ceasefire agreement between India and Pakistan offers hope on multiple fronts.

Frustrated by his failed efforts to mediate between Russia and Ukraine and also, increasingly, by the Israeli president’s refusal to heed him on Palestine, US President Donald Trump desperately needed a diplomatic victory. He has now got one. The Trump administration has successfully brokered the ceasefire agreement between India and Pakistan, in a conflict that was threatening to get out of hand. Initially, the Americans appeared reluctant to intervene in what was “none of their business”. But as intelligence reports started pouring in that the conflict could spiral out of control, they swung into action. US Vice-President JD Vance called Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, trying to impress on him the gravity of the matter and to persuade him to open communication lines with Islamabad. After this, Marco Rubio, the US Secretary of State, worked the phone through the night as he mediated between senior Indian and Pakistani officials. American intervention worked. The India-Pakistan truce, as fragile as it is, might be Trump’s single biggest foreign policy achievement in his second term as president. As expected, New Delhi has been reluctant to give the Americans any credit, while the Pakistanis are all praise for Trump. Pakistan has always wanted to internationalise the issue of Kashmir and the American mediation offers them a chance to ask for more international attention on the issue. India, on the other hand, has had a bad experience of inviting external mediation in its past conflicts with Pakistan.