US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the United States keeps “an eye” on what’s happening between India and Pakistan “every single day” as ceasefires can fall apart very quickly.
“…the only way to have a ceasefire is for both sides to agree to stop firing at one another. And the Russians just haven’t agreed to that. Beyond that, I would say that one of the complications about ceasefires is they have to be maintained, which is very difficult. I mean, every single day we keep an eye on what’s happening between Pakistan and India, what’s happening between Cambodia and Thailand,” Rubio said while speaking to NBC News.
“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.”
In a separate conversation with Fox Business, Rubio once again brought up the recent India-Pakistan conflict, which President Donald Trump has often asserted he resolved.
“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,” Rubio said.
Since May 10, when Trump declared on social media that India and Pakistan had agreed to a “full and immediate” ceasefire after the US-mediated talks, he has repeated nearly 40 times that he “helped settle” their tensions, even linking it to promises of increased trade. But Prime Minister Narendra Modi told Parliament that no foreign leader asked India to halt Operation Sindoor. External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar also dismissed Trump’s claim, stating there was no third-party role and the ceasefire had nothing to do with trade.
