E-Paper
Donald Trump re-claims credit for India-Pakistan ceasefire: ‘I got it done’
Trump on Saturday said that the Russia-Ukraine war is the most challenging thing to solve, after mentioning that the India-Pak ceasefire was his doing.
United States President Donald Trump on Sunday, for the nth time, took credit for stopping the military conflict between India and Pakistan in May this year, an assertion that New Delhi has denied saying the ceasefire understanding was after DGMO-level talks.
Donald Trump, responding to a query on the possibility of resuming a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin over halting the Russia-Ukraine war, claimed on Sunday that the Putin praised him for his efforts in brokering peace in various other conflicts, including in Azerbaijan and Armenia.
Trump said that the Russia-Ukraine war is the most challenging thing to solve, after mentioning that the India-Pakistan military conflict's pause is his doing.
"I got it done [ceasefire]. There are others. If you look at India and Pakistan. I could say almost any one of the deals that I've already done I thought would have been more difficult than Russia and Ukraine, but it didn't work out that way," President Trump said while interacting with media persons aboard Air Force One.
"I'm going to have to know that we're going to have a deal [with Putin]. I'm not going to be wasting my time. I have always had a very great relationship with Vladimir Putin, but this has been very disappointing. I thought this would have gotten done before peace in the Middle East. We have Azerbaijan, Armenia - that was very tough. In fact, Putin told me on the phone he said, 'Boy, that was amazing' because everybody tried to get that done and they couldn't," Trump said.
LISTEN IN
Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that he helped broker a ceasefire between India and Pakistan in exchange for trade concessions, a claim India has denied saying that the issue of trade did not come up in any discussions between the two nations during the military escalation of May.
Donald Trump is headed to Malaysia to attend the upcoming Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit and will proceed to two other countries as part of his three-nation tour. He stopped at the Al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar's Doha, where he welcomed Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani aboard the plane.
During the press interaction, Trump also expressed confidence in achieving lasting peace in the Middle East, while warning Palestinian militant outfit Hamas of serious consequences if the ceasefire agreement with Israel is violated.
"I think it [ceasefire] will hold. Well, if it doesn't hold, it's Hamas. Hamas will not be hard to deal with very quickly. I hope it holds for Hamas too because they gave us their world on something, so I think it's going to hold, and if it doesn't, then they'll have a very big problem," Trump said.
The US President, after Malaysia, is set to visit Japan and South Korea.
