INDIA REJECTING MEDIATION: FROM KASHMIR BILATERALISM TO TRUMP TARIFFS

India's unbroken refusal of thirdparty mediation-from UN 1948 to Trump-explains today's tariff drama: sovereignty first, trade later.

- 

When news broke in August 2025 that the United States had doubled its tariffs on many imports from India, raising duties to as high as 50 percent, most observers assumed the move was part of former President Donald Trump's wider protectionist agenda or an attempt to penalise India for continuing to import Russian oil. The Reuter's dispatch confirmed that a 25 percent penalty was added to Trump's existing tariffs because of India's "purchases of Russian oil".

But the episode quickly took on a geopolitical twist when an analysis by the investment bank Jefferies suggested that the tariffs were partly driven by Trump's personal pique-he felt slighted after New Delhi rebuffed his offer to mediate in the May 2025 India-Pakistan crisis, and the punitive duties were a form of revenge. The report argued that Trump, who had publicly boasted of resolving conflicts around the world, had hoped to intervene in the brief but deadly flare-up along the Line of Control (LOC) and was frustrated by India's refusal.

Whether or not the tariffs were directly linked to the failed mediation offer, the episode brought to the fore a long-standing feature of South Asian diplomacy: India's rejection of third-party mediation in its disputes with Pakistan. This piece explains why that stance has endured for nearly eighty years and how outside powers-especially the United Stateshave repeatedly sought to insert themselves into the conflict. The 2025 tariff row offers a fresh lens to examine the historical roots of India's insistence on bilateralism, the ways external actors have tried to broker peace and sometimes exploited the rivalry, and what the latest trade spat suggests about the intersection of security and economic policy.

ORIGINS OF THE "NO MEDIATION"

PRINCIPLE The seeds of today's diplomatic posture lie in the first Indo-Pakistani war of 194748, when Pakistani forces and tribal militias entered Jammu and Kashmir after its ruler acceded to India.