ISLAMABAD: President Donald Trump said on Monday he had used United States (US) trade ties with India and Pakistan to persuade the nuclear-armed nations to back off from further military confrontation and agree to a ceasefire.
India and Pakistan reached an understanding to stop all military actions on land, in the air and at the sea on Saturday in a US-brokered ceasefire to cease escalating hostilities that had spiraled alarmingly, threatening regional peace.
The two sides used fighter jets, drones, missiles and artillery to attack each other in the worst fighting between them since the 1999 Kargil war, leaving around 70 people dead on both sides of the border.
Speaking at an event at the White House, Trump said the countries ended hostilities for a lot of reasons “but trade is a big one,” adding that Washington was already negotiating a trade deal with India and would soon start negotiating with Pakistan.
“On Saturday, my administration helped broker a full and immediate ceasefire, I think a permanent one, between India and Pakistan, ending a dangerous conflict of two nations with lots of nuclear weapons. They were going at it hard and heavy, and it was seemingly not going to stop,” he said.
“I said, ‘Come on, we are going to do a lot of trade with you guys. Let’s stop it. Let’s stop it. If you stop it, we will do trade, if you don’t stop, we are not going to do any trade.’ People have never really used trade the way I used it.”
While Trump thought his administration had brokered a permanent ceasefire between India and Pakistan, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a Monday evening speech India had only “paused” military action against Pakistan.
Pakistan will have to get rid of its “terrorist infrastructure” if it wants to be “saved,” Modi said in his first comments since the ceasefire.
“I will tell the global community also, if we talk to Pakistan, it will be about terrorism only...it will be about Pakistan-occupied Kashmir,” Modi said, referring to Azad Kashmir.
Pakistan and India have a history of bitter relations and both countries have fought three wars, two of them over the disputed region of Kashmir. Last week’s military conflict between them was also triggered by a militant attack in Indian-administered Kashmir that killed 26 tourists on April 22.
India struck multiple Pakistani cities on Wednesday, blaming the April 22 attack on Pakistan. Islamabad denied any complicity in the assault and reciprocated with similar strikes against Indian military targets.
Modi’s comments came a day after Pakistan said its response to Indian strikes was a “great example” of the coming together of all elements of Pakistan’s national power, warning of a similar response to any future attempts to challenge the country’s sovereignty and integrity.
“No one should have any doubt that whenever our sovereignty would be threatened and territorial integrity violated, the response would be comprehensive, retributive and decisive,” Pakistani military spokesman Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said at a presser.
On Sunday, Trump also said he would try to work with both India and Pakistan to see if they can resolve their dispute over Kashmir.
“I will work with you both to see if, after a ‘thousand years,’ a solution can be arrived at concerning Kashmir,” Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social, referring to India and Pakistan.
India has for years insisted Kashmir is a bilateral issue and not allowed any third-party mediation.
Trump says used US trade ties to persuade India, Pakistan on ceasefire
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Trump says used US trade ties to persuade India, Pakistan on ceasefire
- India and Pakistan last week used fighter jets, drones, missiles and artillery to attack each other in the worst fighting between them in decades
- The two countries reached an understanding to stop all military actions on land, in the air and at the sea on Saturday in a US-brokered ceasefire
Government says Pakistan preparing Cyber Security Act as digital expansion raises risks
- The proposed legislation will create Cyber Security Authority to oversee the country's cyber defenses
- IT minister warns misuse of genetic and digital data could enable targeted cyber and biological threats
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is preparing a Cyber Security Act and a dedicated regulatory authority to strengthen defenses against rising digital threats as the country rapidly digitizes government services and economic systems, IT Minister Shaza Fatima said while addressing a ceremony in the federal capital on Wednesday.
The planned legislation is part of Islamabad’s broader “Digital Nation Pakistan” initiative, which aims to expand e-governance, a cashless economy and online public services while safeguarding national cyber infrastructure.
“The more we move toward digitization, with the kind of opportunities that are opening up for us, it is also bringing an equal, or even greater, set of challenges,” the minister said. “This does not mean that we stop digitization. It means that we must make our cybersecurity systems robust.”
She said Pakistan had already activated its National Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) and provincial CERTs to detect and respond to cyber incidents, while a multi-agency digital monitoring framework known as the National Threat Intelligence System (NTIS) operates around the clock.
“We have a Cyber Security Act coming up, under which a Cyber Security Authority will be established.”
The minister said cybersecurity was not a “generic” concept and required multiple technical specializations as well as comprehensive monitoring and regulation. She warned that the rapid expansion of data-driven technologies was creating new risks even as it opened opportunities in areas such as health and biotechnology.
Referring to advances in genomics and precision medicine, she said the same technologies that help treat diseases could also pose security risks if sensitive biological data were misused. She warned that access to large-scale genetic data could potentially allow hostile actors to develop targeted viruses or other biological threats against populations.
The minister also highlighted Pakistan’s cyber defense capabilities, saying government and military systems remained secure during last year's war with India despite sustained cyber warfare attempts.
She said multiple institutions, including the IT ministry, the National Telecommunication Corporation (NTC), national cybersecurity teams and the armed forces’ cyber command structures, worked together to defend critical systems.
“Despite that massive war ... we did not face a single communication breakdown and we did not allow any penetration into our government systems,” she said, adding that the experience demonstrated the need to further strengthen cybersecurity coordination across institutions.
