Hours after Modi denies US role in India-Pak ceasefire, Trump repeats claim: ‘I stopped the war’
New York/Washington, Jun 18 (PTI): Hours after holding a phone conversation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, US President Donald Trump on Wednesday repeated his claim that he stopped a war between India and Pakistan.
In comments to reporters, Trump described Modi as "a fantastic man" and asserted that the two countries will have a trade deal.
"Well, I stopped the war…. I love Pakistan. I think Modi is a fantastic man. I spoke to him last night. We're going to make a trade deal with Modi of India. But I stopped the war between Pakistan and India,” Trump said Wednesday.
Trump, who is hosting Pakistan Army Chief Asim Munir for lunch at the White House Wednesday, was asked what he is looking forward to achieving diplomatically from the meeting with the Pakistani general.
"This man was extremely influential in stopping it from the Pakistan side," Trump said, referring to Munir.
"Modi, from the India side, and others. They were going at it, and they're both nuclear countries. I got it stopped. I don't think I had one story. Did I have one story written… I stopped the war between two major nations, major nuclear nations. I don't think I had a story written about it,” he said, adding that the people know.
In a nearly 35-minute phone call with Trump on Tuesday, 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, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri 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.
Indian government sources in New Delhi have maintained that the Director Generals of Military Operations (DGMOs) of India and Pakistan reached an understanding to stop all firings and military actions on land, air and sea with immediate effect. They said no third party was involved.
On May 10, Trump claimed 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 the claim over a dozen times that he “helped settle” the tensions between India and Pakistan. Trump said that he told the nuclear-armed South Asian neighbours that America will do a “lot of trade” with them if they stopped the conflict.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
