Marco Rubio says US intervened directly in India-Pakistan conflict

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has doubled down on President Donald Trump’s claim that the Trump administration got “involved directly” in brokering peace between India and Pakistan following the military conflict between the two nuclear-armed neighbours after India’s ‘Operation Sindoor’, the response to the Pahalgam terror attack.

Got ‘involved directly’ in Indo-Pak conflict

“On the broader issue of peace, the President is committed to peace and committed to being the President of peace. And so, we saw when India and Pakistan went to war, we got involved directly, and the President was able to deliver on that peace,” said Rubio during an interview with EWTN’s The World Over on Thursday (August 7).

Rubio listed the conflicts which he claimed Trump has resolved. “Cambodia and Thailand more recently; Azerbaijan and Armenia, hopefully – we’re taping this here today, but on Friday of this week, we’ll be here to sign an agreement and the beginning of a peace deal there. DRC-Rwanda – a 30-year war, 7 million people killed – we were able to bring them here to sign it. Obviously, work needs to – peace is not permanent. It always has to be worked and maintained,” he said.

Rubio also said that the Trump administration was looking to resolve the Russia-Ukraine conflict. “But we’re very proud of those initiatives, and we’re looking for more – obviously, the big one being in Ukraine and Russia. We want to see that as well. But we dedicate a significant amount of time to stopping and ending wars,” he added.

Also Read: Trump claims settling ‘a war a month’, again names Indo-Pak among them

Trump’s ‘penalty’ tariff on India

Rubio’s comments come at a time when the US President has alleged that Russia was using the funds it gets from India through the purchase of crude oil to fuel its “war machine” in Ukraine.

Trump has also slapped an additional 25 per cent tariff on Indian goods entering the US as a “penalty” for buying Russian oil. This, along with the previous 25 per cent tariffs slapped on India, has taken the tariff rate to 50 per cent.

Also Read: Trump’s 50 pc tariff set to hit UP’s silk, carpet and brassware industries

Repeated ceasefire claims 30 times

Since May 10, US President Donald Trump has consistently asserted that he played a direct and decisive role in halting what he described as the “nuclear” conflict between India and Pakistan.

According to Trump, the ceasefire agreement between the two countries came after a “long night” of negotiations facilitated by Washington, which he announced on social media as “full and immediate.”

He has reiterated this position nearly 30 times in speeches and interviews, often highlighting it as a hallmark achievement alongside claims of brokering peace in other global conflict zones.

Also Read: US retailers halt orders from India after Trump’s 50 pc tariff order: Report

‘Ended a war every month’

Trump has portrayed himself as a peacemaker, stating in various interviews—including one with Newsmax—that he has ended multiple international conflicts through a combination of diplomacy and economic pressure.

He recounted threatening to withhold trade deals from countries like Thailand, Cambodia, and even India and Pakistan unless they agreed to de-escalate their conflicts, claiming that this approach “settled a lot of very beautiful wars.” Trump boasted of negotiating, on average, a peace or ceasefire deal “about a war a month” over the past six months.

Adding to his claims, the White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt recently stated that President Trump has ended conflicts spanning from Southeast Asia to Africa, including between Thailand and Cambodia, Israel and Iran, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Serbia and Kosovo, and Egypt and Ethiopia. She argued that these efforts warrant international recognition, specifically a Nobel Peace Prize for the president.

Trade, however, became intertwined with the US’s purported diplomatic efforts. Apart from India, Trump has recently imposed 19 per cent tariff on Pakistani imports, while also announcing a new trade deal with Pakistan focused on developing its oil reserves. He positioned these economic manoeuvres as both pressure tactics to achieve peace and incentives for compliance.

Also Read: 'Give the bully an inch...': Chinese envoy slams Trump’s tariffs on India

Govt refutes Trump’s claims

However, New Delhi has firmly dismissed any suggestion of third-party mediation. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, addressing the Parliament, stated there was no request from any foreign leader to halt “Operation Sindoor,” India’s retaliation for the Pahalgam terror attack.

External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar likewise affirmed that neither the ceasefire nor the cessation of military action was linked to any external trade incentive, specifically refuting Trump’s accounts of US intervention.

Jaishankar also clarified that there were no phone calls between Prime Minister Modi and President Trump during the critical period between the attack and the ceasefire.