Washington, Aug 27: US President Donald Trump once again doubled down on his claim of playing a catalyst in the truce between India and Pakistan following military conflict in May. The American President claimed he personally intervened between the two nuclear-powered neighbours and used trade and tariff threats to force Prime Minister Narendra Modi into agreeing to a ceasefire with Islamabad.
"I am talking to a very terrific man, Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi. I said, What's going on with you and Pakistan? The hatred was tremendous," Trump said, recounting his supposed exchange with PM Modi.
India has dismissed Trump's claims and consistently maintained 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.
The US President claimed tensions between India and Pakistan have been going on "for a hell of a long time, like, sometimes with different names for hundreds of years."
India and Pakistan only became independent states in 1947, when the British decided to end their 200-year-long rule in the Indian subcontinent and to divide it into two separate nations. Before that, the area was divided into several smaller kingdoms.
Trump claimed that to broker a peace between the two Asian neighbours, he threatened PM Modi with Washington holding back trade and slapping New Delhi with high tariffs.
"I said, I don't want to make a trade deal with you...You guys are going to end up in a nuclear war...I said, call me back tomorrow, but we're not going to do any deals with you, or we're going to put tariffs on you that are so high, your head's going to spin," he said.
The Republican added that New Delhi and Islamabad reached a peace deal within "five hours" of his talks with PM Modi.
"Within about five hours, it was done...Now maybe it starts again. I don't know. I don't think so, but I'll stop it if it does. We can't let these things happen," he added.
Trump's Constant Claims
This was not the first time that Trump claimed he "brokered" a peace deal between India and Pakistan. Since May 10, when Trump announced 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 his claim over 40 times that he "helped settle" the tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad.
On Monday, he claimed that he stopped seven wars around the world, including the one between two south asian nuclear neighbours. Talking to the press at the White House, Trump further claimed that of the seven wars he stopped, four were because he used tariffs and trade to negotiate with the parties involved in the conflict.
"I had tariffs and trade, and I was able to say, 'If you go fight and want to kill everybody, that is okay, but I am going to charge you each a 100% tariff when you trade with us'. They all gave up," Trump said.
"I have stopped all of these wars. A big one would have been India and Pakistan...," he said.
"The war with India and Pakistan was the next level that was going to be a nuclear war...They already shot down 7 jets - that was raging. I said, 'You want to trade? We are not doing any trade or anything with you if you keep fighting, you've got 24 hours to settle it'. They said, 'Well, there's no more war going on.' I used that on numerous occasions. I used trade and whatever I had to use...," he added.
India's Response
India has categorically said there was no third-party intervention in bringing about a ceasefire with Pakistan during Operation Sindoor. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said in Parliament that no leader of any country asked India to stop its military exercise against Pakistan.
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