- Indian officials believed Trump would repeat the ceasefire between Pakistan and India.
- The United States has imposed 50% tariffs on Indian exports for the purchase of Russian oil.
- Pakistan has openly credited US President Trump for the ceasefire.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi opted not to attend the ASEAN summit in Malaysia in person to avoid a possible discussion on Pakistan with US President Donald Trump, Bloomberg reported.
Modi had decided not to travel to Kuala Lumpur for the summit of regional leaders, preferring to address the gathering virtually.
“Government officials feared that Trump would repeat his claim that he mediated a ceasefire between India and Pakistan, which India has consistently denied,” according to a report published by Bloomberg read.
Modi reportedly did not want to meet Trump, fearing it could prove “embarrassing” for the Indian prime minister ahead of national elections in Bihar.
It is worth noting that this was not the first time that Modi skipped a possible meeting with Trump. He had also avoided attending the United Nations General Assembly session the previous month.
Relations between India and the United States have deteriorated since the conflict in Pakistan five months ago. In August, Trump imposed 50 percent tariffs on Indian exports, with half of those duties serving as a penalty for India’s purchase of Russian oil. Since then, trade negotiations have been ongoing, but there is still no clear indication of a deal.
Trump has repeatedly said his intervention averted a “bad nuclear war” between Pakistan and India in May this year.
“We ended a nuclear conflict. I think it could have been a bad nuclear war, millions of people could have been killed. So I’m very proud of that,” Trump told reporters at the White House days after Pakistan and India agreed to a ceasefire.
Last week, the US president said he told Modi there should be no war with Pakistan, noting that he had helped avoid several conflicts through diplomacy and trade pressure.
In May, Pakistan and India engaged in a military confrontation, the worst between the old enemies in decades, triggered by a terrorist attack on tourists in the IIOJK’s Pahalgam region, which New Delhi said was supported by Pakistan.
Islamabad has denied involvement in the Kashmir attack, which killed 26 men and was the worst attack on civilians in India since the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
After the incident, India killed several innocent civilians in unprovoked attacks on Pakistan for three days before the Pakistani armed forces retaliated by defending themselves with the success of Operation Bunyan-um-Marsoos.
Pakistan has shot down seven IAF fighter jets, including the Rafale, and dozens of drones. After at least 87 hours, the war between the two nuclear-armed nations ended on May 10 with a U.S.-brokered ceasefire agreement.
Pakistan has always credited Trump for securing a ceasefire and even nominated him for the Nobel Prize.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif described Trump as a “true man of peace”, saying the US president had worked “tirelessly and tirelessly” to end global conflicts, including the war in Gaza.
Meanwhile, the US President praised Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir and Prime Minister Shehbaz, calling them “great people”.
