Modi's refusal to back Trump's Nobel Prize pursuit soured India-US ties: Report

US President Donald Trump during a phone call with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 17 sought his support for the Nobel Peace Prize nomination, on the grounds of ending India-Pakistan hostilities — to which PM Modi refused and brushed off Trump's claim, maintaining New Delhi's position that the ceasefire was agreed upon between India and Pakistan, according to a report in New York Times.

According to the report, PM Modi's refusal to engage with Donald Trump's pursuit of the Nobel Peace Prize has played a key role in souring the relationship between the two nations.

Trump, during the phone call with PM Modi, reportedly said how proud he was of ending the military escalation. He mentioned that Pakistan was going to nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize, an honour for which he had been openly campaigning. PM Modi told Trump that the US' involvement had nothing to do with the recent ceasefire. It had been settled directly between India and Pakistan, the report said.

Weeks after the calls, the US announced 25 per cent reciprocal tariffs on India and levied an additional 25 per cent penalty for New Delhi's purchase of discounted oil from Russia, bringing the total to a staggering 50 per cent.

According to The New York Times, the report, written by Mujib Mashal, Tyler Pager, and Anupreeta Das, is based on interviews with more than a dozen people from Washington and New Delhi who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The two leaders have not spoken to each other since the June 17 phone call.

The US President is also likely to skip the Quad Summit in India scheduled for the latter part of the year.

According to the report, during the same call, which lasted 35 minutes, PM Modi also declined an invitation from Trump to visit Washington before returning to New Delhi after the G7 Summit in Canada. The refusal came amid the concern that Trump might "try to force" a handshake between Indian PM and Pakistan's Army Chief Asim Munir.

A senior India official said that Trump cared very little about the complexity of India-Pakistan relations.

Later on, there was talk of trying to set up another call to finalise a partial trade deal. But with trust between the two leaders eroding, the Indians were wary of putting Modi on the phone with Trump. Indian officials were apprehensive that Trump would post whatever he wanted on Truth Social, regardless of what agreements were made on the call, The New York Times reported, citing a senior Indian official.

Trump, frustrated by the tariff negotiations, reached out to PM Modi several times, according to two people briefed on the discussions who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to discuss the matter publicly.

PM Modi did not respond to those requests, they said.

However, the White House spokesperson has denied that Trump had reached out, as per the report.