Is India-Pakistan ceasefire reducing tensions? 4 things to know

Trump claims he used trade threats to bring about truce, which New Delhi refutes

20250513 India Pakistan flags

Pakistani Rangers and Indian Border Security Force officers at a joint check-post at the Wagah border in 2019. The two countries have fought three wars, multiple war-like battles and a number of skirmishes since 1947, when they gained independence from Britain. © Reuters

KIRAN SHARMA and YUJI KURONUMA

NEW DELHI/TOKYO -- After days of heightened hostilities, India and Pakistan agreed to an "immediate ceasefire" on Saturday, a deal that U.S. President Donald Trump has now claimed was reached between the nuclear-armed South Asian neighbors after he used trade threats.

The latest conflict was sparked by an attack that killed 26 civilians in India-administered Kashmir on April 22 and subsequent days of skirmish between the two sides. The tensions turned into a war-like situation last Wednesday when India launched missiles targeting what it called "terrorist infrastructure" in Pakistan and Pakistan-controlled Kashmir. Since then, both militaries escalated the exchange of fire, from cross-border gunfire and shelling, to drone and missile attacks against each other before the ceasefire announcement came on Saturday.

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