IT has been six months since Pakistan and India battled it out in the skies. Even though independent news sources have confirmed Pakistan’s assertion that they downed a number of Indian aircraft, New Delhi carried out a disinformation campaign casting doubt on the facts. The Modi government’s nationalist posture is centrally tied to the assertion of itself as a regional superpower, and towards this end it has spread disinformation.
The India-Pakistan rivalry is ultimately secondary to the bigger tensions between two very large superpowers. Anyone who has paid attention to the global recalibration taking place would know that the US is now focused on challenging China’s surge on the world stage. Towards this end, the US interest in the region is tied not to any political narrative that the Modi government may want to peddle to its nationalism-fuelled support base but to the role that China is seen to be playing.
In accordance with this focus, the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission submitted a report to Congress this past week. The report is over 800 pages long, which shows the centrality of China to emerging US foreign policy. The report also considers the India-Pakistan conflict in May. Much to New Delhi’s chagrin, the report refers to the Pahalgam attack as an “insurgent attack”, which does not support Indian claims that it was linked to Pakistan.
The report acknowledges that “Pakistan’s military success over India in its four-day clash showcased Chinese weaponry”. This statement in a government report formally establishes what the Indian government understandably wishes to cover up.
Pakistan has always been open about its reliance on Chinese support to safeguard its sovereignty. Pakistan’s close contact with the PLA was well known prior to Operation Sindoor. What is surprising is that the Modi government seemed to have been oblivious to this when it decided to carry out Operation Sindoor, despite observations on the issue by defence analysts in its own country.
American interest in the region is not tied to any narrative that Modi may want to peddle.
Beyond these findings, the report also sheds light on how the US under President Donald Trump sees the new global order. As many might remember, as soon as Trump took office in January this year, he began to dismantle several government departments and programmes that had hitherto projected Washington’s soft power. Prominent among these was USAID, sometimes described as the quasi-diplomatic arm of the State Department. Not only are USAID doors shut now, many of America’s other investments in diplomacy have also been reduced. Huge cuts and reorganisation within the State Department and impending cuts in the foreign service all point to a worldview that does not believe in gentle coaxing but rather in transactional strong-arming.
It is also important to remember that the intellectual theorists who form the foundation of Trumpism in the US believe in the centrality of executive power. This means that they see the presidency rather than the State Department or diplomatic corps as the centre of American foreign policy and diplomacy. In keeping with this worldview, the recent agreements that Washington has struck with other countries on tariffs and other issues have all centred on the White House, often on the person of Trump himself.
The visit of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to the White House this week was an example of this. The mutual defence agreement between the US and Saudi Arabia was touted as Trump’s brainchild. In some ways, Trump sees himself as a monarch — not very different from the Saudi prince.
If India had recognised this in May, it would have been spared many troubles. When Trump claimed credit for stopping the conflict between India and Pakistan, he was not just seeking egotistical satisfaction. He was also reiterating an entirely new way of envisioning the American presidency as the centre of American diplomacy. Instead of recognising this new top-down model as the framework of the new America, the Indian government has continued to believe that good relations with diplomats and bureaucrats would yield a moment of understanding between the US and India.
That moment has yet to come in the second Trump era. The new vision of the US presidency as the all-powerful executive is steadily being strengthened. It is a message that few countries can miss. The statements in this new congressional report indicate not only that Pakistan won the war but also that India lost diplomatically in failing to recognise the new structure of American diplomacy.
The writer is an attorney teaching constitutional law and political philosophy.
Published in Dawn, November 22nd, 2025
