US President Donald Trump has once again claimed that he personally “got things settled” between India and Pakistan after a tense four-day military confrontation which, according to him, could have spiralled into a “nuclear conflict.” Speaking from the White House on Friday, Trump suggested that his intervention which he attributed largely to trade diplomacy prevented a potentially catastrophic escalation between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.
The remarks came during a high-profile ceremony where Trump was joined by Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev and Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to sign a US-brokered peace agreement between their countries. In framing the deal as part of his global peace efforts, Trump referenced India and Pakistan as a previous success story. “They were going at it, they were going at it big, and they were two great leaders that came together just prior to what would have been a tremendous conflict a nuclear conflict, probably,” he said.
Trump went on to claim that “five or six planes” were shot down during the skirmish, though he did not clarify whether these losses were suffered by one side or both. India, however, has maintained a consistent position that the cessation of hostilities with Pakistan was the result of direct talks between the Directors General of Military Operations (DGMOs) of the two militaries without any US involvement.
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According to Trump, his approach to resolving such disputes relies heavily on economic leverage. “I got things settled with India, Pakistan. I think it was trade more than any other reason. That’s how I got involved,” he explained. He added that he did not want to be “dealing with countries that are trying to blow up themselves and maybe the world” especially when those countries are nuclear powers.
This is not the first time Trump has taken credit for defusing India-Pakistan tensions; by some counts, he has made similar claims at least 36 times since the standoff. On Friday, he turned to Aliyev and remarked, “That was a big one, getting that one settled. I think you’d agree that was a big one,” before repeating that planes were “shot out of the sky” and warning that the conflict could have escalated dramatically without his involvement.
Trump positioned the India-Pakistan episode as part of a wider pattern of his global peace initiatives, citing disputes between Congo and Rwanda, Thailand and Cambodia, and Serbia and Kosovo that he said he had helped resolve. “I love saving lives. That’s what it’s about. And you know, when you save lives, you really end up having a peaceful world. Usually that ends up pretty well,” he said.
Addressing a question on the ongoing Ukraine war, Trump suggested a resolution might be “getting close,” hinting that recent developments including increased NATO military spending could help accelerate peace talks. Without elaborating, he noted, “I’m not going to mention anything having to do with India, but maybe that had an impact.”
In a moment of candour, Trump also acknowledged that no matter how many peace agreements he helps broker, he does not expect to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. “I’m not politicking for it. It would be a great honour, certainly, but I would never politick. I’m not doing it for that. I’m doing it because I really, number one, want to save lives,” he said, adding that this was the same motivation behind his involvement in attempts to mediate between Russia and Ukraine.
While Trump’s account of his role in de-escalating tensions between India and Pakistan remains contested and is firmly denied by New Delhi it continues to feature prominently in his narrative of personal diplomatic achievements on the world stage.
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