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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NATO, others turn down US call for help in Hormuz: Trump
Washington (PTI): President Donald Trump on Tuesday said NATO and most of US' other allies have rejected his calls to help secure the Strait of Hormuz as the war with Iran entered the third week.
In a social media post, Trump asserted that Iran’s military has been “decimated” and he no longer felt the need for assistance from NATO countries or anyone else.
Last week, Trump had sought help from European nations and others who depend on oil supplies transiting from the Hormuz Strait to safeguard the critical waterway.
“The United States has been informed by most of our NATO “Allies” that they don’t want to get involved with our Military Operation against the Terrorist Regime of Iran, in the Middle East, this, despite the fact that almost every Country strongly agreed with what we are doing, and that Iran cannot, in any way, shape, or form, be allowed to have a Nuclear Weapon,” the US President said in a post on Truth Social.
Iran's attacks on Gulf nations and its grip on the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world's oil is transported, have sparked increasing concerns of a global energy crisis and are unnerving the world economy.
“I am not surprised by their action, however, because I always considered NATO, where we spend Hundreds of Billions of Dollars per year protecting these same Countries, to be a one-way street — We will protect them, but they will do nothing for us, in particular, in a time of need,” Trump said.
He said Australia, Japan and South Korea too have turned down his call for help.
“Fortunately, we have decimated Iran’s Military – Their Navy is gone, their Air Force is gone, their Anti-Aircraft and Radar is gone and perhaps, most importantly, their Leaders, at virtually every level, are gone, never to threaten us, our Middle Eastern Allies, or the World, again,” Trump said.
He said that given the scale of recent military successes, the US no longer "need" or desires assistance from NATO countries, adding that it never relied on such support in the first place.
Speaking as President of the United States, the "most powerful" country in the world, "we do not need" help from anyone, Trump said.
The West Asia conflict began on February 28 when the US-Israeli combine conducted airstrikes on Iran.
The Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway that connects the Persian Gulf to the open ocean, has effectively been shut following the US and Israel attack on Iran and Tehran's sweeping retaliation.
However, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had said that from Tehran's "perspective", the strait is "open". "It is only closed to Iran's enemies, to those who carried out unjust aggression against our country and to their allies.”
Earlier in the day, a second Indian-flagged LPG tanker, Nanda Devi, reached the country after safely sailing from the war-hit Strait of Hormuz. On Monday, the first ship, Shivalik, reached Mundra port in Gujarat.
As of now, 22 Indian vessels remain on the west side and two on the east side of the strait.
Indian authorities are in constant touch with all the relevant stakeholders in the region to secure the safe passage of the remaining ships, officials said.
