They can go for a nice dinner together, Trump says, unrelenting in claiming credit for India-Pakistan ceasefire

New Delhi: The point-by-point rebuttal by New Delhi to his claims about the United States brokering the ‘ceasefire’ between India and Pakistan last week could not stop President Donald Trump from seeking credit, for the fourth consecutive day, for ending a conflict that could have killed “millions of people”.

He even quipped that the leaders of India and Pakistan could now go for “a nice dinner” together.  

“Just days ago, my administration successfully brokered a historic ceasefire to stop the escalating violence between India and Pakistan,” Trump said at an investment forum in Riyadh. “And I used trade to a large extent to do it. And I said (to Indian and Pakistani leaders), ‘Fellows, come on. Let's make a deal. Let's do some trading,” said the US president, currently on a tour to Saudi Arabia.

He made the comment even as New Delhi categorically rejected his claims about the US playing a mediating role to help India and Pakistan reach a ceasefire on Saturday, ending almost four-day-long cross-border military offensives and counter-offensives between the two South Asian nations. New Delhi also dismissed his claim about using the threat to stop US trade with both India and Pakistan to make them agree on halting cross-border military actions.

“Let's not trade nuclear missiles. Let's trade the things that you make so beautifully. And they both have very powerful leaders, very strong leaders, good leaders, smart leaders. And it all stopped. Hopefully, it'll remain that way, but it all stopped," Trump said in Riyadh on Tuesday.

Trump said that he was very proud of Secretary of State and National Security Advisor Marco Rubio and all of the people who worked so hard to make India and Pakistan agree to the ‘ceasefire’.  

“Marco, stand up. What a great job you did on that. Thank you. Vice President JD Vance, Marco, the whole group worked with you, but there's a great, great job, and think they're actually getting along,” Trump said, jokingly adding: “Maybe we can even get them together a little bit, Marco, where they go out and have a nice dinner together. Wouldn't that be nice? But we've, we've come a long way, and that's could be, you know, millions of people could have died from that conflict, that started off small and was getting bigger and bigger and bigger by the day.”

The US president had earlier on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday repeated his claims about his administration playing the role of the mediator between India and Pakistan.