India and Pakistan agreed to a full and immediate cease-fire in the worst violence between the two nuclear-armed rivals for more than two decades, after what President Trump described as a long night of U.S.-mediated talks.
In a post on his Truth Social network, Trump congratulated both countries “on using Common Sense and Great Intelligence.”
The confrontation between India and Pakistan had intensified Saturday with each accusing the other of drone and missile strikes overnight as the U.S. urged them to get around the table.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance led a diplomatic charge to get the two countries to back off from an escalating conflict that the president feared could go nuclear.
Rubio had spoken to his counterparts in both countries Friday, specifically telling them to engage in talks “to avoid miscalculation.”
The cease-fire ends days of clashes in the wake of a militant attack in Indian-administered Kashmir that New Delhi blames on Islamabad. Pakistan denies involvement in the attack.
Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said the two countries had agreed to a cease-fire with immediate effect. “Pakistan has always strived for peace and security in the region, without compromising on its sovereignty and territorial integrity!” he wrote on X . India’s foreign secretary confirmed the halt in fighting, starting at 5 p.m. local time in India on Saturday.
Trump had told aides he feared the conflict had the potential to involve nuclear weapons, two U.S. officials said. The president said the U.S. could help curb the crisis.
It was a different stance from that taken by Vance in a Thursday interview on Fox News in which the vice president said the conflict was “fundamentally none of our business.”
“We’re concerned about any time nuclear powers collide and have a major conflict. What we’ve said, what Secretary Rubio has said, and certainly what the president has said is, we want this thing to de-escalate as quickly as possible,” Vance said.
Over the past two days, Vance and Rubio took the lead in calling senior officials in India and Pakistan, urging them to end their escalating fight. Their main message, according to the two officials, was that the U.S. didn’t want to see a senseless loss of life and a big war harm relations between their capitals and Washington.
“My gratitude to the leaders of India and Pakistan for their hard work and willingness to engage in this ceasefire,” Vance wrote Saturday morning on X.
U.S. intervention between the two countries has been influential in the past, though political analysts had warned that Washington’s sway over Islamabad had waned in recent years as China pulled the South Asia nation closer into its orbit.
Trump had this week called on Pakistan and India to stop the fighting, saying he knew both sides very well.
The U.S. continues to be seen as a trustworthy intermediary by both sides. Political experts were concerned in recent days that Trump wasn’t focused enough on the risk of another major war breaking out in the world as he turned his attention to trade deals following tariff announcements in early April.
India and the U.S. have drawn significantly closer in recent years amid increased tensions with China.
Earlier this week, India launched what it called retaliatory strikes for the militant attack last month in its part of Kashmir that left 26 people dead. Pakistan said it shot down Indian jets involved in those strikes. India hasn’t commented on the allegation.
Until the latest flare up, India and Pakistan had maintained a frosty peace as both sides focused on internal issues, and India largely followed a strategy of not engaging with Pakistan.
But the first direct clashes this week—including the use of new types of weapons and claims by Pakistan that it downed Indian jets—risked the simmering conflict between them erupting into a full-blown war.
India has said the militants involved in the Kashmir attack last month belong to Lashkar-e Taiba, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization based in Pakistan that carried out the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks.
India accuses Pakistan of backing the militants, Pakistan has denied any involvement in the April attack.
Political analysts initially expected the latest hostilities to follow the pattern of a similar confrontation in 2019, when, following a deadly attack on security personnel in the part of Kashmir it governs, India launched a strike over the border that it said targeted what it described as Pakistani terror camps. Pakistan responded at that time by shooting down an Indian jet fighter. The tit-for-tat de-escalated after Islamabad repatriated the pilot.
This time, both countries deployed types of weapons they haven’t used against each other before, such as drones and loitering munitions in large numbers making the outcome more unpredictable.
The cease-fire represents a win for the Trump administration. Bringing the recent fighting between India and Pakistan to a halt demonstrates the power Washington retains to influence global conflicts.
Technological changes on the battlefield are changing the way in which conflicts precipitate, said Harsh Pant , a visiting professor at the King’s College India Institute and vice president of the foreign policy program at the New Delhi-based Observer Research Foundation.
“It has added another layer to the escalation ladder,” he said. “That’s something militaries are learning from other battlefields.”
Kashmir was divided between India and Pakistan in 1947 during the partition of the Indian subcontinent, but both countries claim the Himalayan region in full. They have fought three wars over the territory, the most recent one in 1999.
Clashes this week included cross-border shelling for the first time in years, across the line of control that divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan.
Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said on Saturday that a local government official had died when Pakistan shelled the town of Rajouri in the Jammu and Kashmir region. Pakistan didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Indian Air Force Wing Commander Vyomika Singh earlier Saturday said as well as military targets, Pakistan attacked civilian sites such as a medical center and a school at several air bases. Singh said India was only targeting identified military sites, such as technical infrastructure, radar sites and weapons-storage facilities.
Singh also alleged that Pakistan’s army had moved soldiers into forward positions closer to India, “indicating offensive intent to further escalate the situation.” She said that Indian soldiers were in a high state of readiness, but said India was committed to non-escalation, “provided it is reciprocated by the Pakistan military.”
Pakistan said before the cease-fire announcement on Saturday that it had begun an operation against India and was only targeting military bases from where New Delhi was launching attacks against it. It didn’t respond to a request for comment about alleged troop movements.
A spokesman for the Pakistani military said that India had targeted three of its air bases with ballistic missiles overnight and that multiple drone strikes were reported across the country.
Write to Tripti Lahiri at tripti.lahiri@wsj.com and Alexander Ward at alex.ward@wsj.com
