Is Pakistan getting credit for the US-Iran ceasefire a setback for India?

 Is Pakistan getting credit for the US-Iran ceasefire a setback for India?

India has welcomed the two-week temporary ceasefire between Iran and the US in its response, but the official statement issued in this regard has neither named Pakistan nor appreciated Pakistan's mediation efforts like many countries of the world.

The statement issued by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs said, "We welcome the decision to ceasefire. We hope that this will help establish lasting peace in West Asia. As we have said before, ceasefire, dialogue and diplomacy are necessary to end the current war."

Details of the Middle East situation and Islamabad talks on the BBC Urdu Live page

The statement further said that this tension has "affected the global oil and energy supply and trade system." We hope that now commercial and oil tankers will be able to pass through the Strait of Hormuz.

While many leaders from around the world, including the UK and the European Union, have praised Pakistan’s mediation efforts over the past two days, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs has also remained silent on the possible talks between Iran and the US in Islamabad and has not made any official comment on it.

It may be recalled that earlier, when Pakistan was engaged in mediation efforts during the war, a controversial statement by Indian Foreign Minister Jaishankar in this regard had graced the media.

According to Indian media, Jaishankar had said in a closed-door meeting on March 25 in the context of Pakistan’s mediation efforts that ‘India does not want to become a broker country like Pakistan.’

Jaishankar said this in an all-party meeting called to clarify the government’s policies on the situation in West Asia.

Questions on foreign policy

b While world leaders are praising Pakistan's role as a mediator, on the other hand, Indian opposition parties have raised questions on India's foreign policy regarding 'Pakistan's growing stature' in international diplomacy.

Congress leader Rashid Alvi, while expressing his party's reaction to the ceasefire, has said that 'India should have done what Pakistan did. But when Prime Minister Modi calls Israel 'fatherland', how can he talk about a ceasefire?'

It should be remembered that the Iran war began with the attacks on Tehran by the US and Israel on February 28. Just two days before this, Indian Prime Minister Modi had returned from his controversial visit to Israel and during this visit, he had called Israel 'fatherland' and India 'motherland', which was criticized by the Indian opposition.

The Congress party has raised questions on Prime Minister Modi's leadership. Congress leader Jairam Ramesh wrote on X that ‘the role played by Pakistan and the ceasefire has dealt a big blow to Modi ji’s personal style of diplomacy.’

He further wrote that ‘the External Affairs Minister (Jaishankar) had dismissed Pakistan as a ‘broker’. But now the self-styled Vishwaguru has been completely exposed, his self-proclaimed 56-inch chest has shrunk.’

However, some voices are also coming out in support of India.

Shiv Sena-UBT leader Priyanka Chaturvedi asked X that ‘why should India be at the negotiating table between the US and Iran? This criticism is incomprehensible, because this was not our fight. For Pakistan, it is like a tortoise who takes money and says that he will resolve the crisis, as the Indian Foreign Minister told (political leaders) in a good manner in an all-party meeting.’

Has Pakistan gained an advantage over India on the diplomatic front in the Iran-Iraq war?

The general opinion in the opposition party is the same as we mentioned above.

 

But the opinion of Indian analysts is mixed.

International affairs expert Harsh Pant calls it ‘short-term diplomacy’.

Speaking to the BBC, he said that ‘Pakistan has played a role in this conflict of exchanging messages. In this, its own identity or any responsibility that can affect the outcome, as a mediator does, does not appear to be the same. What the final outcome of this mediation will be is not yet known. However, it is certain that Pakistan tried to mediate between the two countries through the exchange of messages, which made the ceasefire possible.’

According to him, ‘There is also a question as to why Pakistan is doing this. In fact, since Operation Sindoor (India’s military action against Pakistan in May 2025), Pakistan has been trying to get closer to the United States. Pakistan supported Trump being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

"When the Pakistani field marshal went to the US, Pakistan talked about rare earth minerals. Pakistan is constantly trying to increase its role in US foreign policy, which was very limited before. The current mediation efforts should be seen in this context."

‘Indian foreign policy was very cautious’

Many experts in international politics say that India has been very cautious in this war.

Speaking on a BBC podcast program, BBC Hindi editor Nitin Srivastava said that a major reason for this is the trade agreement with the United States.

He said that ‘When the war between Iran and the US-Israel started, India’s diplomacy was at a very critical stage because India had been negotiating tariffs with the United States for a long time and was confused in it. There were many complications in it. First, this tariff was 25 percent, then an additional 25 percent tariff was imposed on oil from Russia.’

He said that ‘India’s relations with Iran have been very good at the public level. There is also a big import-export business between India and Iran, many things are exported from India to Iran, including basmati rice. On the other hand, many things are coming from Iran, such as minerals, gas pipelines, in which India invests a lot.’

It should be remembered that even after the death of Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei in an American-Israeli attack, the Indian government initially remained silent and after waiting for a few days, a representative of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs went to the Iranian embassy in New Delhi and wrote his comments on the condolence letter.

India has been saying in its official statements on this issue from the beginning that the war should stop, but it has not played any role in this war beyond that.

Nitin Shrivastava says that ‘as far as India’s foreign policy is concerned, two weeks before the ceasefire was announced, after talking to Iran, with their consent, the Indian oil tankers coming to India were brought through the Strait of Hormuz.’

According to him, in this regard, India’s foreign policy has shown a lot of patience and has achieved a lot of success.