NEW DELHI:
US President Donald Trump’s claim to have helped end fighting between arch-rivals India and Pakistan has driven a wedge between him and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, analysts say.
A week since Trump announced a surprise truce between India and Pakistan to end a brief but intense conflict, New Delhi and Washington differ about the way it was achieved.
The US administration thought “an intervention at this stage might give them some basic benefit in terms of highlighting Trump’s role”, Indian foreign policy expert Harsh V Pant told AFP.
“That… became the driver and in a sense the hurry which with Trump announced the ceasefire,” said Pant from the New Delhi-based Observer Research Foundation (ORF) think tank.
Fighting began when India launched strikes on May 7 against what it called “terrorist camps” in Pakistan following an April attack in IIOJK that killed 26 people.
New Delhi blamed Islamabad for backing the militants it claimed were behind the attack, which Pakistan denies.
Trump announced the truce after four days of missile, drone and artillery attacks from both sides, killing about 70 people, including dozens of civilians, and sent thousands fleeing.
He later boasted about bringing India and Pakistan “back from the brink”, telling Fox News on Friday it was “a bigger success than I’ll ever be given credit for”.
New Delhi however shrugs off these claims, which go against decades-long Indian policy that opposes foreign mediation in conflicts with Islamabad.
Modi’s first speech since the ceasefire did not mention US involvement and his government has since insisted that talks with Pakistan are “strictly bilateral”.
India was also quick to dismiss Trump’s suggestion that trade pressures hastened a truce.
“The issue of trade did not come up” in discussions with US officials, the Indian foreign ministry said this week.
