US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has asserted that Washington directly intervened to avert a military confrontation between India and Pakistan earlier this year — renewing US President Donald Trump's previous claim that he personally intervened to avoid war between the nuclear-powered neighbours.
In an interview with EWTN's The World Over on Thursday, Rubio labelled Trump as being dedicated to world stability and as the "president of peace."
"And so we saw when India and Pakistan were at war, we entered directly, and the president was able to fulfill that peace," Rubio stated.
The American official also mentioned other conflicts in which Trump purportedly facilitated peace.
"Cambodia and Thailand more recently; Azerbaijan and Armenia, hopefully. DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo)-Rwanda — a 30-year war, 7 million people killed — we were able to bring them here to sign it," he said, adding that the administration is "looking for more — obviously, the big one being in Ukraine and Russia."
Since May 10, Trump has repeatedly claimed to have "helped settle" the India–Pakistan crisis by informing both nations that the US would trade "a lot" with them if they ceased fighting.
New Delhi firmly denied this account, stating that the ceasefire was a consequence of direct negotiations between the Indian and Pakistani military — not involving the US.
Last month, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh informed the Lok Sabha that it was "totally wrong and false to say that the military operation was halted due to pressure."
"India suspended its operation as all the political and military goals researched beforehand and in the course of the conflict had been entirely realized," Singh added.
He further added that the move was prompted by a plea from Pakistan's Director General of Military Operations (DGMO), who had "pleaded for relief."
Some analysts believe Trump’s recent trade measures against India may be linked to New Delhi’s refusal to credit him for the ceasefire. Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Center in Washington, told ANI that India’s stance was unusual compared to other countries.
"China has not stood out there and refused to allow President Trump to take credit for his contribution to the ceasefire. China has not had its leader spend hours on the phone talking to Trump and basically telling him what's right and what's wrong. These are things that occurred with India," said Kugelman.
Trump's government has recently levied an additional 25% duty on Indian exports, taking the total to 50%. The action was prompted by India's continued imports of oil from Russia, as cited by Washington.
New Delhi stood its ground, stating Russian oil imports were vital to providing cheap energy to its people. The Ministry of External Affairs termed the US tariffs "unfair, unjustified, and unreasonable" and termed it "extremely unfortunate" that India was being punished for doing something that a number of other countries — including China — are doing.
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