United States President Donald Trump once again claimed credit on Tuesday for ending the conflict between India and Pakistan, saying that his threat of extremely high tariffs was instrumental in reaching a ceasefire agreement.
Participating in a cabinet meeting at the White House yesterday, the US president reiterated the claim that his intervention was directly responsible for the end of the conflict.
“India and Pakistan were gonna end up in a nuclear war if I didn’t stop them,” he said, adding, “I saw seven jets were shot down … $150 million planes were shot down; seven, maybe more than that, they didn’t even report the real number.”
Trump added that he had spoken to both India and Pakistan at the time of the conflict, asking them what was going on between them.
“The hatred was tremendous,” he said, saying that the conflict had been going on, “sometimes with different names”, for hundreds of years.
Without specifying whether he had been speaking to India or Pakistan, the president said that he had refused to make a trade deal if the two countries ended up in a nuclear war, which had proven pivotal.
“I said, ‘Call me back tomorrow, but we’re not gonna do any deals with you,’” Trump said, “‘Or … we’re gonna put tariffs on you so high, I don’t give a damn, your head’s gonna spin. You’re not gonna end up in a war.’ Within about five hours, it was done.”
Alluding to the possibility that the conflict could begin again, he said, “I don’t think so, but I’ll stop it if it does. We can’t let these things happen.”
Trump has repeatedly claimed credit for ending the war between India and Pakistan, while also regularly threatening steep tariffs on countries that — including hiking tariffs on India to 50 per cent for continuing to buy Russian crude oil, a move that took effect today.
India has denied the claim that the US president was responsible for brokering the ceasefire via trade threats. India has publicly expressed frustration over what it sees as the Trump administration’s increasing tendency to insert itself into India-Pakistan affairs.
Pakistan, meanwhile, hailed the move, with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif praising Trump for his “leadership and proactive role” in helping Pakistan and India achieve peace in the region.