From missiles to ceasefire: how India and Pakistan pulled back from the brink

Shah Meer Baloch in Islamabad and Hannah Ellis-Petersen in Delhi

May 12, 2025

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As nuclear war became a real possibility, Trump tasked Marco Rubio and JD Vance to contact the feuding countries

Indian surface-to-air missiles were already soaring towards Pakistan’s most significant military bases when the first call came from the US.

It was 4am in Islamabad and Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state and recently appointed US national security adviser, was on the line to the man everyone knew was calling the shots in Pakistan: army chief Gen Asim Munir.