Ricky Gill, a special assistant to the United States president, has been awarded the National Security Council’s Distinguished Action Award for the role that the US administration says he played in the “India-Pakistan ceasefire negotiations”, The Print reported.
Gill received the award from US Secretary of State Marco Rubio last week.
The official, who has Indian roots, is a senior director for South and Central Asia in the US National Security Council. In the first Trump administration, he served as Director for Russia and European Energy Security at the council.
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed credit for brokering the ceasefire between India and Pakistan following the four-day conflict in May. He claimed that he mediated an end to the conflict by threatening to impose high tariffs on both countries.
New Delhi has rejected the claims and maintained that the ceasefire was not the result of mediation, and that the US was not involved in the talks. It maintained that trade was not discussed with the US during the period of the conflict in May.
The tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad had escalated on May 7 when the Indian military carried out strikes – codenamed Operation Sindoor – on what it claimed were terrorist camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
The strikes were in response to the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam, which killed 26 persons on April 22.
The Pakistan Army retaliated to Indian strikes by repeatedly shelling Indian villages along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir. At least 22 Indian civilians and eight defence personnel were killed.
Pakistan claims 11 of its military personnel and 40 civilians were killed.
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