New Delhi: The Kremlin has publicly acknowledged US President Donald Trump’s assertion that he played a key role in halting military escalation along the Line of Control (LoC) post-Operation Sindoor.
In a statement issued Wednesday, following a 70-minute phone call between Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin credited the US president with personally helping to de-escalate the four-day confrontation between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.
“The Middle East was discussed, as well as the armed conflict between India and Pakistan, which has been halted with the personal involvement of President Trump,” the statement read.
The statement appeared to endorse a narrative that Trump has promoted in the past month repeatedly—his diplomatic efforts were instrumental in halting the armed military conflict between India and Pakistan.
During a press conference earlier this week, Donald Trump, alongside Elon Musk, declared, “We stopped India and Pakistan from fighting. I believe that could have turned into a nuclear disaster.”
The US President added that trade considerations played a role in persuading both countries to step back from the brink.
The Kremlin’s claim echoed remarks Donald Trump has also made during the recent US visit of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, where the American President again described his involvement as decisive in preventing a broader conflict between the two South Asian countries.
The US government, in a court statement earlier, defended its right to presidential tariff powers by citing the use of trade incentives to end armed hostilities between India and Pakistan post-Operation Sindoor.
The Donald Trump administration told a federal court on 23 May in New York that the President leveraged US trade access as a bargaining tool to help “avert a full-scale war between India and Pakistan”.
India, however, has flatly denied that the Trump administration played any formal role in ending the hostilities. New Delhi has maintained that Islamabad initiated the de-escalation talks on 10 May and that no third-party mediation was sought or required.
In Washington, as part of a diplomatic delegation, Shashi Tharoor dismissed Trump’s characterisation. “We have enormous respect for the American presidency, but we have never particularly wanted to ask anyone to mediate,” Tharoor said.
Indian officials have publicly released the details of high-level contacts with US counterparts during Operation Sindoor, emphasising the absence of any trade discussion. The disclosures show that US Vice President J.D. Vance spoke to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 9 May, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke to the Indian External Affairs Minister and the National Security Adviser on multiple occasions between 8 and 10 May.
On the other hand, Islamabad has repeatedly acknowledged the mediation role of Donald Trump.
Speaking at an event held in the US Embassy in the capital on Tuesday, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif commended the US President for helping de-escalate tensions with India and called on the US to play a more active role in facilitating a comprehensive dialogue between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.
Russia-Ukraine conflict
The Kremlin statement provided further details on the Trump-Putin conversation, which began with a discussion on the ongoing war in Ukraine.
President Putin, talking about the outcome of the second round of direct talks between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul, accused the Ukrainian forces of targeting civilians while framing such actions as state-sponsored terrorism under international law. He emphasised the restraint Russia showed and noted that the talks produced memoranda, which would come under review in Moscow and Kyiv.
Other topics of discussion mentioned in the statement were the stalled negotiations over the Iranian nuclear programme, with Trump reportedly asking for Russian assistance in reviving dialogue with Tehran. The two leaders also explored possibilities for restoring broader US-Russia cooperation, a goal both described as holding “enormous potential”.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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Maybe our foreign minister should do more than lecture the Western world.