WASHINGTON - United States President Donald Trump has scrapped plans to attend an upcoming summit of the 'Quad' grouping in India amid deteriorating ties between Washington and New Delhi, US newspaper The New York Times (NYT) reported on Saturday. Relations between the two countries have plummeted, with 50 per cent levies on many Indian imports into the US taking effect this week as punishment for New Delhi's massive purchases of Russian oil; a part of US efforts to pressure Moscow into ending its war in Ukraine.
As ties between both nations deteriorate, NYT reported on Saturday that the breakdown in relations was caused after a phone call on June 17. "After telling [Indian Prime Minister Narendra] Modi that he would travel to India later this year for the Quad summit, Mr Trump no longer has plans to visit in the fall, according to people familiar with the president's schedule," the NYT reported, citing "interviews with more than a dozen people in Washington and New Delhi". The NYT mentioned how Trump's repeated claims about having ended the recent brief conflict between India and Pakistan reportedly "infuriated" Modi. The paper added that the dispute "dates back more than 75 years and is far deeper and more complicated than Mr Trump was making it out to be". India blamed Pakistan for the April 22 Pahalgam attack without evidence, triggering a military escalation. On May 6-7, New Delhi launched air strikes that killed civilians, followed by a week-long missile exchange. A US-brokered ceasefire ended the war."During a phone call on June 17, Mr Trump brought it up again, saying how proud he was of ending the military escalation," the NYT reported.
"He mentioned that Pakistan was going to nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize, an honour for which he had been openly campaigning. The not-so-subtle implication, according to people familiar with the call, was that Mr Modi should do the same."
It added that the "bristled" Indian premier told Trump that American involvement had nothing to do with the ceasefire and the conflict had been settled directly between India and Pakistan.
"Mr Trump largely brushed off Mr Modi's comments, but the disagreement -- and Mr Modi's refusal to engage on the Nobel -- has played an outsize role in the souring relationship between the two leaders, whose once-close ties go back to Mr Trump's first term," the report reads, adding that the two leaders have not spoken since the June 17 phone conversation and Trump has only doubled down on taking credit for the ceasefire.