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New Delhi: UK President Donald Trump reiterated his claim that he brokered peace between India and Pakistan and helped stop the military conflict between the two countries in May by proposing a trade deal. "We said, we are not making a trade deal if you are going to be throwing around weapons, and maybe nuclear weapons," he said. India has categorically dismissed Trump's claim and maintained that the US had no role in truce with Pakistan.
India launched Operation Sindoor against Pakistan-based terrorist organisations on May 7, in response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack that claimed 26 innocent lives. The conflict between the two countries that lasted four days was one of the most serious clashes between the two nuclear rivals in decades. A May 10 ceasefire pulled the two countries back from the brink of a full-fledged war.
Repeating his claim, the US President said that the US got the military tension between India and Pakistan defuse through trade. "We stopped a lot of wars. And these were serious, India and Pakistan, that was going on. Planes were being shot out of there. I think five jets were shot down, actually. These are two serious nuclear countries, and they were hitting each other."
"India and Pakistan were going at it, and they were back and forth, and it was getting bigger and bigger, and we got it solved through trade. We said, you guys want to make a trade deal. We're not making a trade deal if you're going to be throwing around weapons, and maybe nuclear weapons, both very powerful nuclear states," he added.
Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made it clear during a phone call with Trump that the US had no role in brokering the ceasefire between India and Pakistan and that there was no discussion on a US-India trade deal during the hostilities. "PM Modi clearly told President Trump that during the entire course of events, at no point, and at no level, was there any discussion about a US-India trade deal or about US mediation between India and Pakistan," Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri had said, sharing details of the PM Modi and Trump's 35-minute telephonic conversation.
Earlier this month, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar also rebutted Trump's claim of using trade to convince India and Pakistan for a ceasefire. He said he was with PM Modi when US Vice President JD Vance spoke to him and there was no mention of trade and truce.
