Critics of the Modi government have been taking potshots at his foreign policy, but India has now emerged as a key player in the Iran-US-Israel war. Pakistan, however, has been left high and dry after the US used it as a mediator and then signed the interim peace deal without its involvement. President Trump signed the deal at a glitzy dinner in Versailles on June 17 and dumped the formal signing ceremony on June 19 at Switzerland.
Even the peace MoU was signed secretly and digitally between US and Iranian leadership with Pakistan being kept in the dark. PM Sharif and FM Munir had packed up their suitcases for Switzerland but President Trump left them acutely embarrassed by signing the deal before French President Emmanuel Macron at the historic palace.
President Trump went out of his way to praise PM Modi and said that the US would come to aid if it were attacked in future. He also said that it was for India to decide whether it wanted to play a role in Middle-East peace as India was a global player.
India takes President Trump's remarks with a pinch of salt, but the events on June 17 were a tight slap on the face of Sharif who had to cancel his visit to Switzerland and generally praise the interim peace deal sitting in his office in Islamabad.
