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Congress MP Manish Tewari on Tuesday endorsed the claims made by US President Donald Trump about his administration playing a "crucial role" in brokering the understanding of the cessation of hostilities between India and Pakistan following the heightened tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.
Tewari contextualised the US intervention within the historical framework of India-Pakistan relations since 1990, when Pakistan began brandishing the nuclear card. He noted that foreign powers, led by the US, have consistently intervened during flashpoints in the India-Pakistan equation. "The statement which has come from US President Donald Trump is, whether you like it or not, a factual statement. If you look at the India-Pakistan paradigm from a perspective from 1947 to 1972, whenever tensions went up between India and Pakistan and they were primarily over the state of Jammu and Kashmir, it was the United Nations Security Council resolutions which were the template for whatever interlocution took place between the two countries. After 1972 till 1990, it was the Shimla Agreement which injected bilateralism," the Congress MP said. "But when Pakistan started waving the nuclear word from 1990... Then onwards, whenever there has been a flashpoint in the Indian-Pakistani equation, there has been intervention by foreign powers led by the US," he added. He underscored the inevitability of international involvement when tensions escalate between two nuclear-armed states. "The bottom line ultimately is that when tensions ratchet up between two de facto nuclear weapon states, the rest of the world is not going to stand by and watch. Therefore, the other countries of the world will obviously be talking to both countries when they're not talking to each other," he said. Tewari's comments follow Trump's statement during a White House press briefing on Saturday, where he highlighted the US's efforts in de-escalating the recent tensions between the two neighbours. "On Saturday, my administration helped broker an immediate cessation of hostilities, I think a permanent one between India and Pakistan - the countries having a lot of nuclear weapons," Trump said, asserting that his administration played a crucial role in brokering the understanding of the cessation of hostilities. The cessation of hostilities, announced on May 10, came after India's decisive military response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack. Operation Sindoor, launched on May 7, targeted terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, leading to the death of over 100 terrorists affiliated with terror outfits like the Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hizbul Mujahideen. After the attack, Pakistan retaliated with cross-border shelling across the Line of Control and Jammu and Kashmir as well as attempted drone attacks along the border regions, following which India launched a coordinated attack and damaged radar infrastructure, communication centres and airfields across 11 airbases in Pakistan. (ANI)
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