Opinion: US’ Invitation To Pakistan Field Marshal Munir Is Both A Crisis, Opportunity For India

Amidst escalating tensions and terrorist attacks, India has been actively lobbying against Pakistan's alleged state-sponsored terrorism. Despite this, the US has invited Pakistan's Field Marshal to Army Day celebrations, signaling a potential shift in US-Pakistan relations.

The United States under President Donald Trump announced earlier this week that it has invited Pakistan Field Marshal Asim Munir to the coveted Army Day celebrations. This comes at a time when India is leaving no stone unturned to apprise the world of Pakistani state-sponsored terrorism post the April 22 dastardly Pahalgam attacks, in which 26 civilians got killed, which forced New Delhi to respond with both diplomatic and kinetic responses by way of putting the Indus Water Treaty in abeyance and launching Operation Sindoor that went on for little less than 100 hours.

However, as Pakistan continued to deny its role in Pahalgam, Islamabad went on a narrative blitzkrieg, pushing India to launch a number of multi-party delegations in several corners of the world, from the United States to Algeria and from the Panama Canal to Colombia. Some of the prominent party workers from the opposition parties, like Shashi Tharoor, Supriya Sule, Asaduddin Owaisi and Priyanka Chaturvedi, among others, travelled to various countries in order to make India’s voice against terrorism heard while also making them aware of New Delhi’s new counterterrorism doctrine.

The multiparty delegation, particularly those which included Tharoor and Owaisi, did not lose any opportunity to lambast Pakistan even as they urged countries to ostensibly boycott Pakistan for Islamabad’s continued support to terror outfits, including entities like Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed, which continue to foment terror along the Line of Control (LoC) between India and Pakistan.

Ever since Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power in 2014, a series of terrorist attacks have taken place in India, including those on the security forces that forced India to take the stand of zero tolerance on terrorism even as New Delhi stopped all official-level dialogues with Islamabad, and said terror and talks cannot go together. However, the bilateral relationship had been steadily deteriorating in stages from 2016 onwards.

In September 2016, four Jaish-e-Mohammed militants attacked an army camp in Uri that led to the death of 18 Indian defence personnel. India, at that time, took the decision to stop all dialogues with its western neighbour, including the historic foreign secretary-level talks that were to begin that year. The Uri attacks came in the wake of the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist Burhan Wani in an encounter in July that year.

Wani’s killing sparked a major wave of unrest and protests in the Kashmir Valley. His death led to large-scale demonstrations, with reports of numerous casualties and injuries among protesters and security forces. The incident also reignited tensions and led to a period of increased security measures and conflict in the region.

Then came the Pulwama terrorist attack in 2019, when a convoy of vehicles carrying Indian security personnel on the Jammu–Srinagar National Highway was attacked by a vehicle-borne suicide bomber from JeM. The next big attack came in April 2025 when 26 civilians were brutally attacked and killed in Pahalgam when they were vacationing in the valley.

In the aftermath of all these attacks, India had been upping its assault on Pakistan’s terror network in a gradual manner even as New Delhi has been calling out Rawalpindi’s support for the terrorists across all multilateral forums from the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

India had also been counting on its close partners, especially the United States, to take some decisive action against Pakistan and its constant support for terror. Hopes were high when US President Donald Trump came back to power, as he is seen as someone who is close to Prime Minister Modi. When PM Modi last visited the US for a bilateral meeting with Trump, he aligned India’s economic and strategic interests by bringing together MAGA, or Make America Great Again, with Make India Great Again, or MIGA.

India is also gearing up to host Trump for the upcoming Quad Summit that is expected to take place in October. However, it seems India is going to experience heightened tensions with one of its closest strategic allies – the US – as it tilts towards Pakistan, and that might act as a major hurdle in taking the Quad, of which Australia and Japan are also members, to the next level.

What India should be concerned about presently, and New Delhi must seek to address immediately with Washington, is the US’ reliance on Pakistan as a “partner” in their counterterrorism efforts when it comes to hunting down the ISIS-K, ISIS-Khorasan, terrorists.

During a hearing held before the House Armed Services Committee, General Michael Kurilla, the chief of the US Central Command (CENTCOM), referred to Pakistan as a “phenomenal partner” in the fight against terrorism. He specifically commended Islamabad’s significant efforts in combating the ISIS-Khorasan group, which has posed a growing threat in the region. This should serve as a wake-up call for India. This is a win on all sides for Pakistan, which has managed to bring the US closer after Washington was slowly drifting away from Islamabad since 2019.

India must now act with a robust strategy under which it should not try and apprise its counterterrorism strategy with individual countries, but it should now update the long-pending Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT) lying at the United Nations. This is a convention aimed at establishing a comprehensive legal framework to combat terrorism. India has been a driving force behind the CCIT, proposing the draft in 1996 and consistently pushing for its adoption, according to the Permanent Mission of India to the UN.

Now that India has made it clear to the world that every terrorist attack carried out by Pakistan-based terrorists will be met with a kinetic response, it should put all its energy on strengthening the CCIT, make it more contemporary and invest all its diplomatic efforts in ensuring that the document is adopted. Therefore, this recent closeness between Washington and Islamabad should be leveraged as an opportunity by India. 

Nayanima Basu is a senior independent journalist.

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