Interview: US claiming credit for ceasefire sets Indian foreign policy back by decades

The ceasefire between India and Pakistan arrived at on Saturday ended three days of the worst fighting seen between the two sides in decades, but the United States publicly claiming credit is a disaster for Indian foreign policy, says defence expert Sushant Singh.

The Indian military on May 7 said it launched strikes on terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and Pakistan following the terror attack on tourists in Pahalgam in April. This was followed by three days of cross-border shelling that escalated to drone attacks on border towns and missile attacks.

On Saturday evening, Donald Trump claimed that the US had helped mediate the ceasefire, but India later said that Pakistan’s director general of military operations called up first asking to pause the hostilities.

In an interview with Scroll on Sunday, Singh said that whether it was Kargil or other instances where US presidents officials have intervened, they had always been in the background. “Now, this is completely in the forefront,” said Singh, a lecturer at Yale University and a consulting editor at The Caravan.

“This also negates India’s long-standing view that any crisis or issue with Pakistan is a bilateral issue and should not be internationalised,” said Singh.

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