Trump used offers of trade access to broker Indo-Pak ceasefire, claims U.S. Commerce Secretary

U.S. government claims Trump's intervention led to India-Pakistan ceasefire, contradicting Indian officials, amid trade negotiations and tariffs dispute.

The U.S. government has, for the first time, put on record in a court submission its claim that the ceasefire between India and Pakistan, following India’s Operation Sindoor, was “only achieved” after U.S. President Donald Trump stepped in and offered both countries trading access to the U.S. in order to “avert a full-scale war”.

This claim seems to contradict the Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal’s May 13 statement, when he insisted that, while there were “conversations” between Indian and U.S. leaders between May 7 — when Operation Sindoor commenced — and May 10, “the issue of trade did not come up in any of these discussions”.

Mr. Jaiswal had added that the ceasefire had been forged through “direct contact”, not via U.S. mediation. He was reacting to Mr. Trump’s comments a day earlier saying that India and Pakistan had ended hostilities for a lot of reasons, but “trade was the big one”.

The on-record submission to the United States Court of International Trade was made on May 23 by U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick and three other officials of the Trump administration.

They were speaking in their defence against a lawsuit filed by small U.S.-based companies challenging the 10% global tariffs Mr. Trump had imposed on nearly all imports. In the submission, Mr. Lutnick argued that the ability to impose such tariffs was a “cornerstone” of the U.S. national security architecture.

“For example, India and Pakistan — two nuclear powers engaged in combat operations just 13 days ago — reached a tenuous ceasefire on May 10, 2025,” Mr. Lutnick noted. “This ceasefire was only achieved after President Trump interceded and offered both nations trading access with the United States to avert a full-scale war.”

“An adverse ruling that constrains presidential power in this case could lead India and Pakistan to question the validity of President Trump’s offer, threatening the security of an entire region and the lives of millions,” he added.