Trump’s involvement isn’t surprising – but it is importantpublished at 17:01 British Summer Time 10 May
Jake Kwon
Reporting from Washington
Image source, ReutersTrump says the agreement between India and Pakistan was reached after a long night of mediations with his US administration
Isolationism is in the DNA of the Trump administration and until recently it was projecting a hand-off approach in this conflict.
Vice-President JD Vance previously described a potential war between India and Pakistan as “none of our business” during an interview with Fox News.
But this was becoming a conflict that the White House could not ignore.
On a personal level, President Trump sees himself as a peacemaker in global conflicts. He’s regularly dispatched his most trusted envoy to Israel and Russia with instructions to broker ceasefires.
With tensions between Islamabad and Delhi threatening to boil over, it was par for the course for Trump to get involved.
But on a more strategic level, Washington sees India as a centrepiece in containing China.
In the strategy that goes back several administrations, the US had enveloped China with a line of allies from South Korea to India. As well as heightening military co-operation, India was a main partner in the Biden administration’s strategy of “friend-shoring” to reduce American reliance on Chinese manufacturing.
Though Trump criticised India’s trade barriers, he signed a deal with Prime Minister Modi to further expand security co-operation and trade.
While Pakistan is now aligning with China and Iran, Washington may have viewed the prospect of its close ally India getting into a dangerous conflict as too great a risk to regional security.
