New Delhi: A day after claiming US involvement in brokering the ceasefire that ended 4 days of cross-border armed hostilities between India-Pakistan following Operation Sindoor, President Donald Trump has now proposed American mediation for a “solution” to the Kashmir issue after a “thousand years”, and pledged to expand trade with both India and Pakistan.
In a post on social media platform Truth Social early Sunday morning, Trump praised the leadership in New Delhi and Islamabad for halting escalations and said he was proud that the US was able to “help arrive at this historic and heroic decision”.
“I am very proud of 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 lead (sic) to the death and destruction of so many, and so much. Millions of good and innocent people could have died!” Trump wrote.
“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 you both 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!!!,” he added.
India and Pakistan announced Saturday that both nations had agreed to halt military actions by land, air, and sea from 1700 hours IST. However, before this official statement was released, Trump claimed in another Truth Social post that the truce had come after “a long night of talks mediated by the US”.
In a separate post on X, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that he and Vice-President J.D. Vance had “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” over the past 48 hours.
The Indian government, which has consistently maintained that India-Pakistan issues should be resolved bilaterally, in a press briefing later said that a mutual understanding was reached between DGMOs of both countries.
Pakistan too, post the ceasefire, said it was mostly done via “WhatsApp diplomacy” between “friends” such as UK’s Foreign Secretary David Lammy, Saudi prince Mohammed bin Salman and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, with whom extensive talks were held in the past 24 hours, according to a statement by Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar. Both countries, in their initial statements, made no mention of the US.
Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif, however, did thank Trump for “his leadership and proactive role for peace in the region” and “for facilitating this outcome” in an X post later in the night.
Kabir Taneja, a senior fellow at the Observer Research Foundation, told ThePrint that while the end of hostilities was a welcome development, New Delhi may view any potential economic incentives for Islamabad with skepticism.
“In a way, cessation of hostilities is a good thing overall. However, Pakistan potentially getting economic favours in return would be seen as an undesirable outcome of this entire episode for New Delhi,” he said.
“Strengthening Pakistan economically has proven time and time again to be a futile exercise of short-term management of Rawalpindi, not long-term solutions to the state’s sponsorship of global terrorism,” he added.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)
Also read: US takes credit for ‘ceasefire’, India says it worked it out ‘directly’ with Pakistan