Trump Repeats Claim Of Averting Nuclear War Between India And Pakistan

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday reiterated his claim that he directly intervened to prevent a potential nuclear conflict between India and Pakistan in May, saying he threatened “crippling” trade tariffs and refused trade deals until a ceasefire was agreed.

Speaking at a White House cabinet meeting, Trump said he personally contacted Prime Minister Narendra Modi before reaching out to Pakistan.

“I am talking to a very terrific man, Narendra Modi. I said, ‘What’s going on with you and Pakistan?’ The hatred was tremendous. This has been going on for a hell of a long time, like, sometimes with different names for hundreds of years,” he said.

Trump claimed that Pakistan responded to his warnings within five hours. “I said, I don’t want to make a trade deal with you… You guys are going to end up in a nuclear war… I said, call me back tomorrow. But we’re not going to do any deals with you, or we’re going to put tariffs on you that are so high, your head’s going to spin. Within five hours, it was done. Maybe it starts again, but I will stop it if it does,” he added.

He also repeated an earlier assertion that seven or more fighter jets were shot down during the escalation. “I saw they were fighting, then I saw seven jets were shot down. I said, 'That's not good.' That's a lot of jets. You know, USD 150 million planes were shot down. A lot of them. Seven, maybe more than that. They didn't even report the real number,” he said. He had previously mentioned five jets before revising the figure.

Trump further claimed he had stopped multiple wars, including the India-Pakistan conflict. “I have stopped all of these wars. A big one would have been India and Pakistan… They already shot down seven jets - that was raging. I said, 'You want to trade? We are not doing any trade or anything with you if you keep fighting, you have got 24 hours to settle it.' They said, 'Well, there's no more war going on.' I used that on numerous occasions. I used trade and whatever I had to use…”

Since May 10, when Trump announced on social media that India and Pakistan had agreed to a “full and immediate” ceasefire after talks mediated by Washington, he has repeatedly claimed over 40 times that he “helped settle” the tensions.

Trump’s remarks came just hours before new tariffs totalling 50 per cent on Indian goods were set to take effect on August 27.

India has consistently maintained that the ceasefire was reached through direct talks between the Directors General of Military Operations (DGMOs) of the two countries. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said in Parliament that no foreign leader asked India to halt Operation Sindoor, and External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar has said there was no third-party intervention in the ceasefire.

(With inputs from PTI)