 "U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Reuters")
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday said Washington monitors developments between Pakistan and India “every single day”, following four days of military clashes after India’s Operation Sindoor, which targeted terror hubs and headquarters at nine locations in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and Pakistan.
He noted that enforcing a ceasefire is often the hardest part. “I mean, every single day we keep an eye on what’s happening between Pakistan and India, what’s happening between Cambodia and Thailand,” he said, as quoted by PTI.
Rubio warns Ukraine ceasefires ‘can fall apart very quickly’
Speaking about the difficulties of a ceasefire in the Ukraine war, Rubio told NBC News, “…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.”
Rubio warned that ceasefires “can fall apart very quickly”, especially in a conflict lasting three and a half years. Instead, he said the US was working towards a peace agreement. “….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 interview with Fox Business, Rubio again cited India and Pakistan. “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,” he said, echoing a claim earlier made by US President Donald Trump.
However, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during a discussion in Parliament on Operation Sindoor, underlined that no world leader had asked India to stop the operation. External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar also confirmed that there was no third-party involvement in securing the ceasefire with Pakistan.