US President Donald Trump
Credit: Reuters Photo
New York/Washington: US President Donald Trump Monday reiterated his claim that he stopped the conflict between India and Pakistan, which could have turned into a "nuclear war", through trade.
"We've been very successful in settling wars. You have India, (and) Pakistan. You have Rwanda and the Congo that was going on for 30 years," Trump said during his meeting with NATO Secretary General Rutte in the Oval Office.
"India, by the way, Pakistan would have been a nuclear war within another week the way that was going. That was going very badly, and we did that through trade. I said, ‘we're not going to talk to you about trade unless you get this thing settled’, and they did, and they were both great, great leaders, and they were great,” he added.
Since May 10, when Trump announced on social media that India and Pakistan had agreed to a “full and immediate” ceasefire after a “long night” of talks mediated by Washington, he has repeated his claim more than a dozen times on several occasions that he “helped settle” the tensions between India and Pakistan.
However, India has been consistently maintaining that the understanding on cessation of hostilities with Pakistan was reached following direct talks between the Directors General of Military Operations (DGMOs) of the two militaries.
In a nearly 35-minute phone call with Trump last month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi firmly stated that India does not and will "never accept" mediation and that the discussions between Indian and Pakistani militaries on cessation of military actions were initiated at Islamabad's request.
India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7, targeting terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in retaliation for the Pahalgam attack that killed 26 civilians.
India and Pakistan reached an understanding on May 10 to end the conflict after four days of intense cross-border drone and missile strikes.