Indian Prime Minister Modi’s decade-long effort to isolate Pakistan ‘failed’, report finds

• The report comes 10 years after Prime Minister Modi promised to isolate Pakistan.
• Pakistan took advantage of key events to become main player: report.
• India has failed to prove Pakistan’s alleged role in the Pahalgam attack.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decade-long efforts to diplomatically isolate Pakistan have failed, Al Jazeera ” reported, with analysts saying Islamabad has managed to become an important diplomatic player for superpowers and regional players.

The assessment comes nearly 10 years after Modi publicly pledged to isolate Pakistan following a 2016 attack in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) that killed 18 Indian soldiers.

Addressing a rally in Kerala at the time, Modi said India would intensify its efforts to ensure that Pakistan remained isolated globally. “We will make sure that you are isolated everywhere in the world.”

However, analysts say Pakistan today appears far from isolated. The country remains a close strategic partner of China and has also re-emerged as a trusted partner of the United States under the presidency of Donald Trump.

Over the past year, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Chief of Army Staff (COAS) and Chief of Defense Forces (CDF) Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir met with Trump at the White House, while Pakistan played a central mediating role in efforts involving the United States and Iran.

“This partly reflects, analysts say, Pakistan’s success in courting Trump and capitalizing on key geopolitical events to become an important diplomatic player for superpowers and regional players,” the report said.

Relations between Pakistan and India have remained largely frozen in recent years, with diplomatic relations at a standstill. The two neighboring countries also experienced border skirmishes and a brief conflict last year.

In May 2025, during the 87-hour conflict, Pakistan shot down eight Indian fighter jets – four French-made Rafales, a Su-30, a MiG-29, a Mirage 2000 and an “expensive” multi-role unmanned aerial system – as well as dozens of drones.

The war between the two nuclear-armed countries ended on May 10 with a ceasefire agreement brokered by the United States.

While India has maintained that any ceasefire agreement resulted solely from bilateral engagement, Trump has repeatedly asserted that Washington helped broker the truce and averted a potentially catastrophic escalation between New Delhi and Islamabad.

The US president also proposed working with nuclear-armed neighbors to find a solution to the Kashmir conflict, which has defined India-Pakistan relations since 1947.

The report further states that Trump has since insisted on more than 30 occasions that he brokered the truce between India and Pakistan. The US president also claimed that Indian warplanes were shot down on the first day of the conflict, echoing the Pakistani narrative.

India’s reluctance to immediately respond to these claims further reinforced the international perception that Pakistan had gained an advantage in the global narrative surrounding the conflict, analysts say.

On the other hand, according to the report citing analysts, India has also failed to convince the world of Pakistan’s alleged role in the attack that triggered the May 2025 fighting, according to analysts.

Analysts say Modi’s refusal to give the US president credit for the ceasefire has strained US-India relations.

Pakistan, for its part, quickly recognized Trump’s efforts to achieve the truce and even nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Diplomatic relations

Despite Modi’s failed attempts, Pakistan’s diplomatic relations with Bangladesh improved significantly after the ouster of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed, Al Jazeera reported.

On the other hand, Pakistan’s ties with China – the two countries have long been staunch strategic partners – became even more important during last year’s conflict. Pakistan has used Chinese missile defense systems and jets.

India has also changed its position on the Israeli-Palestinian issue, becoming Israel’s closest ally, its largest arms buyer, and increasingly abstaining from UN resolutions criticizing Tel Aviv.

This alignment with Israel under Modi has complicated its position with Gulf states, just as Pakistan has deepened its security partnerships with the oil-rich Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), the report added.

Amid Israel’s multiple wars – against Gaza and the occupied West Bank, Lebanon and Iran, and its bombings in Qatar and Syria – Gulf countries have increasingly looked beyond their traditional dependence on the US security umbrella.

Earlier in September 2025, Saudi Arabia signed a mutual defense agreement with Pakistan. Some reports have also revealed that other Gulf countries and Turkey may also consider joining the Saudi-Pakistan defense deal.

And last May’s war boosted Pakistan’s image as a credible security provider, with demand for Pakistani fighter jets having since increased.