US President Donald Trump repeats India-Pakistan ceasefire claim, speaks at Nato summit

US President Donald Trump has once again claimed that he indeed brokered peace and made a ceasefire possible between India and Pakistan last month, days after India refuted repeated similar claims by him.

In an apparent U-turn from last week, Trump reiterated on Wednesday that he had told leaders of both India and Pakistan that he would stop trade if they did not budge, claiming the US eventually stopped a nuclear war.

Trump had said last week that the “very smart” leaders of India and Pakistan decided they would not continue the war, and stopped short of crediting himself for the ceasefire.

Speaking to reporters at a Nato Summit in The Hague in the Netherlands on Wednesday, Trump mentioned recent military conflicts around the world, including the Israel-Iran war, and Russia-Ukraine war, but said that the most important of them all was the India-Pakistan conflict, which he said he managed to put an end to.

“May be the most important of them all (wars) was India and Pakistan. I ended that with a series of phone calls and said that if you fight each other, we are not doing any trade deal. The General (Asim Munir of Pakistan) was very impressive. Prime Minister Modi is a great friend of mine, he is a great gentleman and I got them to reason. They said we want a trade deal. So we stopped a nuclear war,” Trump said at the briefing.

India and Pakistan were engaged in the worst military conflict in decades following New Delhi’s Operation Sindoor precision strikes against Pakistani terror infrastructure on May 7 in retaliation against the Pahalgam terror attack, which claimed 26 civilian lives on April 22.

The two countries reached a ceasefire understanding on May 10, which Trump announced and said that he brokered it. India, on the other hand, refuted the claim, saying the Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) of Pakistan called on his Indian counterpart and requested a stop to the hostilities.

Trump’s latest claim came days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he told the US President that America had no role in establishing truce between India and Pakistan.

CONGRESS SEIZES ANOTHER OPPORTUNITY

Following Trump’s claims, the Congress, who has continuously been critical of the Centre over their handling of the situation, pounced on the opportunity to corner the Modi government, claiming that the US president has made the claim for the 18th time now.

“Trump said for the 18th time. I stopped the war between India and Pakistan. I clearly said- if a war is fought, I will not do a trade deal. The leaders of both countries said- we want to do business, that is why we are stopping the war,” the Congress posted on X, taking a dig at the government.

“This is the 16th time since May 10th that President Trump has said this,” Congress spokesperson Jairam Ramesh wrote in a social media post, while sharing Trump’s video statement from The Hague.

Pawan Khera, another Congress leader, said that PM Modi “undermined” India’s interests by giving in to Trump’s pressure.

“From China to the US, the world knows that the greatest weakness of Prime Minister Modi is applause, approval, validation. Just praise him a little and Modi will undermine India’s interests – giving clean chits to China and surrendering to threats of the US,” Khera wrote.

Any representative of the government or the ruling party in the Centre is yet to comment on Donald Trump’s claims.

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