"I don't think there was really mediation," Expert says

India Gazette

17-05-2025

By Reena Bhardwaj
London [UK], May 16 (ANI): Walter Ladwig Senior Lecturer, international relations at King's college London and Security Expert said that contrary to US President Donald Trump's claims, the US has no role in resolving India-Pakistan conflict.
Ladwig, in conversation with ANI, said that India has come clean that there was no mediation that has happened.
'The US has claimed to be brokering peace in this crisis. India has resorted the clean and that no mediation on the table what impression of what happened and personally what I happened is that the US among other countries was in conversation with both sides,' he said.
Ladwig said that one must take Trump's statements with a grain of salt.
'We know Vice President JD Vance spoke to Prime Minister Modi. Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke to Dr Jaishankar. I think similar conversations were probably had with the Pakistani Prime Minister with the Pakistani Army Chief to kind of open up lines of communication and then to get the DGMOs speaking to each other,' he said.
'I don't think there was really mediation in the sense of Trump's claims. We have to take what he [Trump] says with a grain of salt,' he added.
Ladwig while expounding on his 'grain of salt' comment talked about how Trump said that the Kashmir issue is 1,000 year old.
'Kashmir has been a disputed point between India and Pakistan for a thousand years, which he also claims so the US was in conversation it was not the only country. The particular dynamics of the crisis de-escalation was a lot about the desires of the two parties involved, two principles involved, who both when an off ramp was presented or developed were willing to move towards that for their own various reasons. But it wasn't the case that this was brought about by pressure or mediation in the way Trump described,' he said.
Ladwig said that as per the larger picture, it is not profitable for the US if there is a conflict between India and Pakistan, especially because the US wants to use India as a leverage against China.
'At the end of the day, this is not the primary US concern when it comes to India. We have successive administrations going all the way back to George W Bush that have been seeking to cultivate India as an important partner in the Indo-Pacific. In part as a counterweight to China but in part as a country that the US and India disagree on some things that their range of agreement in terms of the world we want to see in the future is often more aligned than not. So that's the big picture,' he said.
Ladwig said that the war affects India's economy which is growing in leaps and bounds.
'It's not in the American interest for there to be a conflict between India and Pakistan insofar as that distracts India's attention away from bigger picture. Issues in Asia insofar as that prevents the Indian economy which is growing at an impressive just under seven per cent a year needs to grow faster to be all of the development targets,' he said.
'All of those things will be put at risk by a protracted conflict or stalemate with Pakistan so that's clearly not in America's interest,' he said. (ANI)