E-Paper
'Stopped it over trade': Trump again claims he brokered India-Pak ceasefire
Apart from claiming credit for the ceasefire, Donald Trump also reiterated that the conflict was stopped "over trade", a claim India has rejected in the past.
US President Donald Trump has repeated his claim that he brokered a truce between India and Pakistan, a charge denied by the Indian government time and again. During a press briefing at the White House on Tuesday, Trump said he "stopped a lot of fights", naming the India-Pakistan conflict as one of them.
He also reiterated that the conflict was stopped "over trade", another claim India has rejected in the past.
"We stopped a lot of fights... I think a very big one frankly... India and Pakistan and we stopped that over trade. We are dealing with India; we are dealing with Pakistan," Trump said.
The Republican also claimed that the India-Pak conflict was at a nuclear stage, something he had said in May as well, days after the truce was reached.
"We said we are not going to dealing with you at all if you are going to fight, and they were... may be at a nuclear stage... they are both nuclear powers," Trump said in his latest remarks on the issue.
Back in May, India had categorically denied there being any trade link to the cessation of hostilities, and also said that the military action under Operation Sindoor was “entirely in the conventional domain”.
Tensions between India and Pakistan escalated significantly following the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir that claimed 26 lives. A fortnight later, India launched ‘Operation Sindoor’, a military move targeting terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
Even as India maintained that the original escalation of tensions was the Pahalgam attack, Pakistan launched what it termed retaliatory strikes targeting Indian air bases, following which the Indian Air Force airstrikes crippled key Pakistani airbases.
On May 10, Donald Trump announced a ceasefire between India and Pakistan, a claim he has repeated time and again, and one that India has always rejected.
The government maintains that a truce was reached through bilateral talks between DGMOs of India and Pakistan. “We have a longstanding national position that any issues pertaining to the Indian Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir have to be addressed by India and Pakistan bilaterally. That stated policy has not changed. As you are aware, the outstanding matter is the vacation of illegally occupied Indian territory by Pakistan," the Ministry of External Affairs had said.
Most recently, EAM S Jaishankar also clarified that the truce between India and Pakistan was not linked to any trade talk.
