Openomics 2026: A Winning Deal With Trump

THE JUNE 17, 2025 phone conversation between Modi—who was in Canada at the time attending a G7 meeting—and Trump was terse as the prime minister explained that India has not, and will not, accept any third-party mediation in ties with Pakistan and that the May 7-10 conflict ended after the Pakistani military sought a ceasefire. Trump is understood to have heard Modi without saying much. Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri thereafter read out a statement on the phone call that left no room for ambiguity. “Prime Minis­ter Modi clearly conveyed to President Trump that at no point during this entire sequence of events was there any discussion, at any level, on an India-US Trade Deal, or any proposal for a me­diation by the US between India and Pakistan. The discussion to cease military action took place directly between India and Paki­stan through the existing channels of communication between the two armed forces, and it was initiated at Pakistan’s request. Prime Minister Modi firmly stated that India does not and will never accept mediation. There is complete political consensus in India on this matter,” Misri said. Not only was Trump’s claims to have used trade as leverage to end the fighting denied, so was his assertion of mediating an end to the hostilities. This amounted to India’s refusal to endorse Trump’s adding the resolution of the India-Pakistan clash to his claim to a Nobel Peace prize. On the other hand, Pakistan had no such qualms in humouring Trump and its army chief Asim Munir, who had wrangled a promo­tion to ‘Field Marshal’ for himself, gained access to the White House. A September 2025 photograph of the military officer and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif presenting a box of rocks, supposedly rare minerals, to Trump was the high point of the newfound camaraderie. Yet the mineral deposits in Pakistan are primarily located in Balochistan which has been rocked by a separatist insurgency, making plans for commercial extraction highly speculative. On the other hand, India-US relations have now turned full circle and even if it takes time for suspicion and doubt to abate, the BTA is evidence of a normalisation in ties.