New Delhi: Marco Rubio said that the United States monitors India and Pakistan situation “every single day”. The US Secretary of State once reiterated claims that American President Donald Trump mediated between the 2 countries during the recent conflict and helped avert a nuclear war. He told ABC news that truce deals can fall apart quickly and that maintaining them is a huge challenge.
Maintaining ceasefires is difficult: Rubio
Talking about the ceasefire, Rubio said, “One of the complications of ceasefires is maintaining them, which is very difficult. Every single day, we are keeping an eye on what is happening between Pakistan and India.”
The US Secretary of State also touched upon the Russia-Ukraine war during his interview. He said that the only way to have a ceasefire is for both sides to agree to stop firing at one another. And the Russians have just not agreed to it.
He further said, “Ceasefires can fall apart very quickly, especially after a three-and-a-half-year war (in Ukraine) like what we’re facing now, but I don’t think anyone disagrees that the ideal here, what we’re aiming for is not some permanent ceasefire. What we’re aiming for here is a peace deal so there’s not a war now and there’s not a war in the future.”
Crediting Trump further for bringing about peace between India and Pakistan, Rubio said, “And I think we are very fortunate and blessed and should be thankful to have a President who has made peace and the achievement of peace a priority of his administration. We’ve seen it in Cambodia and Thailand. We’ve seen it in India-Pakistan. We’ve seen it in Rwanda and the DRC. And we’re going to continue to pursue any opportunities we can find to bring about peace in the world.”
Trump’s ceasefire claim and India’s rebuttal
India on the other hand has maintained that the ceasefire with Pakistan, post Operation Sindoor happened after a request from Islamabad. The Indian Ministry of External Affairs said that after suffering huge losses during the conflict Pakistan requested a ceasefire and India agreed to it. Pakistan however gave credit to Trump for the ceasefire, in order to gain his attention.
US President Trump had on May 10 announced the ceasefire between India and Pakistan on social media. Since then he has repeatedly claimed that he brought about the ceasefire between the 2 nuclear armed countries, promising to do more trade with them.
India has vehemently denied Trump’s claims. Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself told Parliament that no leader of any country asked India to stop Operation Sindoor. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has categorically said there was no third-party intervention in bringing about a ceasefire with Pakistan during Operation Sindoor. He also clarified that the halting of military action was not in any way linked to trade as claimed by Trump.
