With his unconditional surrender to Iran, US President Donald Trump has single-handedly brought the American century to an end. After asking Tehran to open the “effing strait” of Hormuz, calling the Iranians “crazy bastards”, and then threatening that this “whole civilization would die” if they did not, Trump has capitulated, agreeing to a two-week ceasefire while a peace deal—based on Iran’s 10-point proposal—is hammered out in Islamabad. Trump acknowledged China’s role in bringing Iran on board. Iran has won the war.
The other loser is Israel, though it can be expected to continue attacking Iran to try and torpedo the peace talks. Israel is an isolated nation, led by a deranged Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who, according to the US media, talked Trump into the war despite opposition in Trump’s cabinet, particularly from Vice-President J.D. Vance. The Israelis have lost the world’s sympathy and also that of its closest ally’s sympathy: a poll this week showed 60 per cent of Americans distrusted Israel, no doubt thanks to the genocide in Gaza, and the Zionist nation’s using the Iran war to begin ethnic cleansing in southern Lebanon.
The big winner is, of course, Pakistan, successfully bringing about the ceasefire thanks to all-night efforts by Field Marshal Asim Munir. One can argue that Islamabad’s efforts would have failed had it not been for Beijing’s quiet guarantee to Tehran. It would be a futile argument because China and Pakistan are avowed “all-weather friends”. China helped Pakistan during 2025’s Operation Sindoor. Pakistan convinced the world that it had won that 100-hour war; India’s tardy efforts to recapture the narrative has, at best, given other governments food for thought. The world does not see Pakistan as a rogue state.
Pakistan’s win has many implications for India’s future. Obviously, India was on the losing side of the war. Worse, Prime Minister Narendra Modi went to Tel Aviv, picked up a fake medal, and egged Netanyahu on to conduct the war. This did not go unnoticed by Iran, which will no doubt emerge not just the regional power in West Asia, but a big player in global affairs. Iran’s control of the Strait of Hormuz will now be formalised. India relies heavily on the Gulf for energy security, for fertiliser, and for remittances; the Gulf needs Indian workers. India is in a hole.
It would not be a difficult hole to climb out of if our government was not so stubbornly ideologically oriented. It takes pride in not talking to Pakistan: earlier this week, a BJP-friendly pseudo-intellectual felt that Pakistan “did not exist for us” and that this was Modi’s biggest foreign policy achievement. Sad. In fact, Modi and then Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan had, in 2021, extended a ceasefire that had held well since 2003. That was likely India’s compulsion after the 2020 Galwan clash with China. But business took place. Now there is pin-drop silence.
India needs to recognise that the multipolar era has begun in true earnest, and that we need to repair relations in world capitals. This is an uphill struggle given the low social capital New Delhi has with others, particularly since it is the president of the BRICS grouping; it could not even voice sympathy after the killing of Ayatollah Khamenei or the 165-odd schoolgirls at the start of the US-Israeli war on Iran.
Such silence was incomprehensible, even if Modi was busy campaigning in State elections—which seems unnecessary, given that both the Supreme Court and the Election Commission of India have made it an uneven playing field, particularly in Bengal where a stunning 90 lakh voters have been disenfranchised without recourse, despite the anecdotal evidence of wrongful deletions in the voters list.
Modi’s weak diplomat
India is also hobbled by an ineffective External Affairs Minister in S Jaishankar. He comes out poorly (despite the Indian media portraying him as a power broker) when you contrast him with the Iranian Foreign Minister, Seyed Abbas Araghchi. Watch any video of Araghchi, and he comes across as suave, calm, intellectual, and fully justified in what he says, which, of course, was a counterpoint to Trump’s unhinged and barbaric rantings.
Jaishankar, on the other hand, chickened out when he was asked, three years ago, about confronting the other superpower, China: “They are a bigger economy... What am I going to do? I am a smaller economy.” Quite unlike the Iranians who, despite their inferior military position and the long-time economic sanctions against them, held off the Americans through strategic thinking and civilisational pride.
However, do not expect Modi to replace Jaishankar with someone more articulate or someone with more confidence in India. We can only expect Modi to double down on retaining Jaishankar, as he did with Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Singh Puri after the latter’s name came out repeatedly in the Epstein files. In any case, ciphers like Jaishankar only exist to carry out Modi’s orders, which will remain both anti-Muslim and pro-West.
This is a compulsion, given that “Brand Modi” is based on being anti-Muslim, with vague promises of “Akhand Bharat”, which implies the dissolution of Pakistan. Clearly, other countries find Pakistan useful and will not let it break up. Israel is in no position now to help Modi retake his “Akhand Bharat”. The West has its own problems, and America will surely turn inwards.
It is unlikely that India will be kicked out of BRICS, but no one will be surprised if it is informally downgraded within the grouping, seen as America’s mole. (Pakistan nominated Trump for a Nobel Prize, yet no one sees it as the USA’s mole.) No one will be holding Modi’s hands and raising them in the air, as he likes to do (and has been lampooned by comedian Pulkit Mani, whose reel was taken down on orders from the government). This column’s advice will likely be disregarded, but perhaps the best place for New Delhi to start to repair its image on the world stage is in Pakistan, by talking to Islamabad again.
Aditya Sinha is a writer living on the outskirts of Delhi.
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