Once again, Trump claims credit for stopping India, Pak from going nuclear

New York/Washington: US President Donald Trump on Thursday again repeated his claim that he solved the conflict between India and Pakistan and said that the war could have turned nuclear.

“If you look at Pakistan and India… planes were being knocked out of the air. Six or seven planes came down. They were ready to go, maybe nuclear. We solved that,” Trump said during remarks in the Oval Office.

The US president’s comments come on the eve of his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday as he tries to bring an end to the Ukraine war.

Trump said he had thought the Russia-Ukraine war would have been the “easiest one” to end but “it's actually the most difficult”.

“I think that President Putin would like to see a deal. I think if I weren't president, he would take over all of Ukraine. It's a war that should have never happened. If I weren't president, in my opinion, he would much rather take over all of Ukraine. But I am president and he's not going to mess around with me,” Trump said.

“I think it's going to be a good meeting,” Trump said of his upcoming meeting with Putin.

He added that “the more important meeting” will be the second meeting with Putin, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and himself.

Trump said there may also be some European leaders for that meeting.

“We're going to see what happens. And I think President Putin will make peace. I think President Zelenskyy will make peace. We'll see if they can get along, and if they can, it'll be great,” he said.

Trump went on to add that he has solved "six wars” in the last six months and he is “very proud of it”.

Since May 10, when Trump announced on social media that India and Pakistan had agreed to a “full and immediate” ceasefire, he has repeated his claim on several occasions.

Trump has claimed that he told the nuclear-armed South Asian neighbours that America will do a “lot of trade” with them if they stopped the conflict.

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.