Two days later, on June 18th, America’s president hosted Pakistan’s army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, for lunch at the White House. Mr Trump and Mr Modi spoke by phone the day before, allowing India’s leader to assert that the recent conflict ended at Pakistan’s request and to reaffirm his objections to mediation on Kashmir.

Since May 10 — when India and Pakistan announced a ceasefire in hostilities — Donald Trump has on 14 different occasions claimed that he helped broker peace between the two nuclear-armed nations. However,