Trump claims he stopped India, Pak war by threatening to 'cancel all deals'
New York/Washington, Jun 27 (PTI): US President Donald Trump on Friday repeated his claims that he stopped the war between India and Pakistan by telling his administration officials to “cancel all deals” with the two countries, after which they agreed to stop the fighting.
"We did some great work. India and Pakistan. That was going to be maybe nuclear. We did that. We did a lot of work. I don't know if there's ever been a president that's done much more,” Trump said, as he spoke to reporters at the White House following several decisions from the US Supreme Court, including one limiting the power of lower courts regarding national injunctions in a birthright citizenship case.
Trump again repeated his claim that he stopped the war between India and Pakistan, which he claimed could have turned nuclear, after he told the countries that Washington would not “trade” with Delhi and Islamabad.
“Serbia, Kosovo is going to go at it, going to be a big war. I said, ‘you go at it, there's no trade with the United States.… That's what happened with India and Pakistan. I was negotiating with both of them and I said to (Treasury Secretary) Scott (Bessent), I said to (Commerce Secretary) Howard (Lutnick), cancel all deals with India and Pakistan. They're not trading with us because they're in a war,” Trump said.
Trump said the two countries “called back. ‘What do we do?’ I said, ‘Look, you want to have trade with the United States. It's great, but you want to go and start using nuclear weapons on each other. We're not going to allow that.’ And they both agreed, both have great leaders. They both agreed not to do it. So so we did a lot,” Trump said.
He added that “some of the bigger countries, India, I think we're going to reach a deal where we have the right to go in and trade. Right now it's restricted. You can't walk in there. You can't even think about it. We're looking to get a full trade barrier dropping, which is unthinkable and I'm not sure that that's going to happen, but as of this moment, we've agreed to go into India and trade.”
“We're going to be trading in China. That's going to come a little bit down the road, but we're going to be trading in China. We have a lot of great things going and we're getting along with countries, but some will be disappointed. Because they're going to have to pay tariffs, and we've taken in already hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs, no inflation,” Trump said.
India and Pakistan reached an understanding on May 10 to end the conflict after four days of intense cross-border drone and missile strikes.
Trump has repeated the claim several times 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 week, PM 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.
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Trump repeats claim he ended conflict between India and Pakistan
New York/Washington (PTI): US President Donald Trump Thursday said he had threatened to put 200 per cent tariffs on India and Pakistan if they didn't stop the fighting last summer, reiterating the claim that he stopped the war between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.
Trump repeated the claim that he stopped eight wars within the first year of his second term in the White House as he addressed an event of the Board of Peace in Washington.
India has consistently denied any third-party intervention.
Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif attended the event along with leaders of the other nations who have signed up to join the Trump-led organisation.
As he addressed the event, Trump listed the conflicts he helped end and asked leaders of the countries to stand up as he mentioned the nations.
Trump asked Sharif to stand up and then said, "I spoke to Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi. He's excited. He's watching us right now."
"Pakistan and India. That was a big one. I think you should actually stand, come please stand just for a second. Pakistan and India. Thank you very much," Trump said.
As he spoke about ending the war between India and Pakistan last summer, Trump said he likes Sharif and the country's Field Marshal and Chief of Defence Forces Asim Munir, whom he called a "great guy".
"…There was some fighting going on when I got to know him (Sharif) and your Field Marshal General. Great, Great General. Great Field Marshal, a great guy,” he said.
Trump repeated the assertion that Sharif had claimed he saved “25 million lives” when he stopped the war between India and Pakistan.
Earlier, Trump had claimed that Sharif said he had saved 10 million lives by ending the conflict between the two nations.
"You made that statement," Trump said to Sharif. “I said 25 million lives, could have been much more actually, but it was really a beautiful thing…. That war was raging. Planes were being shot down, and it was Pakistan and India.
"And I got on the phone with both of them, and I knew him (Sharif) a little bit. I knew Prime Minister Modi very well, actually. I got to know Pakistan through a little trade. They were trying to make too good a deal, and I would get a little upset with them. And in the end, they got what they wanted, right? And they made a good deal, and I got to like them, the Prime Minister, the Field Marshal, who's a tough man, a tough good fighter, serious fighter. I like good fighters, actually,” Trump said.
“And when I heard that they were fighting, I pick up a certain newspaper.… and I saw that Pakistan and India were really going at it. And then it got worse and worse, and… many planes were shot down. It was all out. And I called them, I said, ‘Listen, I'm not doing trade deals with you two guys, if you don't settle this up’. They said, ‘No, no, no’,” Trump said, adding that neither of the two countries wanted to do that.
“I said, ‘No, it has to. If you don't do it, I'm not doing a trade deal. We're not doing a trade deal’," he added.
“And they do a lot of business with the United States, and they sort of softened up all of a sudden. And all of a sudden, I read where there was a little bit of a pullback by one, then the other, and all of a sudden, we worked out a deal. But I said, ‘If you fight, I'm going to put 200% tariffs on each of your countries’,” which essentially would have meant that they could not have done any business with the US.
“One of them, I won't say which one, said, ‘No, can't do that’. They both wanted to fight. But when it came to money, nothing like money. When it came to losing a lot of money, they said, ‘I guess we don't want to fight’. And we solved that deal in two-three days.
“And we did. We said these are two very powerful, two nuclear nations. And I don't want to say what was going to happen, but, you know, bad things happen. So, Prime Minister, I want to thank you, because that was a very big deal. People have no idea. A lot of them say, ‘Oh, well, they weren't fighting’. They were fighting, 11 jets were shot down, very expensive jets, and they were all in. Both of them were all in, and now they're not.
“And I think we'll always be able to settle up with them. I really do. I think… a lot of progress was made, even in the relationship. And Prime Minister Modi also is a great man. He's a great guy. They're all great, but I was very proud of it.”
He, however, did not specify which country's jets he was referring to.
Trump has claimed credit for stopping the India-Pakistan conflict more than 80 times since May 10 last year, when he announced on social media that the two neighbours had agreed to a “full and immediate” ceasefire after talks mediated by the US.
India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7 last year, targeting terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in retaliation for the April 22 Pahalgam attack that killed 26 civilians.
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.
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