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Spoke to 'very terrific' PM Modi during India-Pak conflict, brokered ceasefire in 5 hours: Trump
Donald Trump went on to describe a conversation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the height of India-Pakistan hostilities in May.
US President Donald Trump on Wednesday yet again claimed he helped broker peace between India and Pakistan during their military confrontation in May, saying his intervention forced the two countries to step back from the brink of war.
Speaking at a cabinet meeting, Donald Trump recalled how he averted a world war at the start of the Ukraine-Russia conflict, saying “they were ready to trot,” before shifting to describe a conversation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the height of India-Pakistan hostilities in May.
The remarks came just hours before Trump’s new tariff measures on India were set to take effect on Wednesday, August 27, raising the overall tariff burden on Indian goods to nearly 50 per cent.
What Donald Trump said
Sitting alongside his defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, he recounted, “I am talking to a very terrific man, Narendra Modi. I said 'what's going on with you and Pakistan'. The hatred was tremendous. This has been going on for a hell of a long time, like, sometimes with different names for hundreds of years," he added.
“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," Trump added.
The Republican President said the deal was done 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.”
Just a day earlier, Trump had again asserted that he was responsible for the ceasefire announced in May. He claimed that “seven jets were shot down” during the conflict — a different figure from what he mentioned last month, when he spoke of “five planes” being downed.
The US President, however, did not clarify which country’s aircraft were destroyed.
While Trump has repeatedly claimed a role in brokering a ceasefire between India and Pakistan, New Delhi has consistently dismissed the US President's assertions. India maintains that the May 10 ceasefire was declared after Pakistan’s Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) contacted his Indian counterpart, requesting de-escalation.
India has underlined that the agreement was bilateral and unconditional, reached without any third-party intervention.
