Donald Trump again boasts he brought peace between India, Pakistan: ‘Used trade to a large extent’

US President Donald Trump has yet again claimed credit for easing tensions between India and Pakistan, boasting that he brokered peace between the two nuclear-armed neighbors. Speaking at US-Saudi Arabia Investment Forum, Donald Trump also reiterated that he “used trade to a large extent” to get the two countries to halt strikes at each other.

“Just days ago, my administration successfully brokered a historic ceasefire to stop the escalating violence between India and Pakistan. I used trade to a large extent. I said let's make a deal, let's do some trading. Let's not trade nuclear missiles, let's trade the things you make so beautifully,” Trump said to applause from the audience.

Speaking on India-Pakistan understanding, Donald Trump said, “Both have very powerful, strong and smart leaders. It all stopped and hopefully it will remain that way...They [India-Pakistan] are actually getting along.”

“Maybe we can even get them together to go out and have a nice dinner. Millions of people could have died from that conflict that started off small and was getting bigger and bigger by the day.”

Donald Trump is in Saudi Arabia on the first leg of his four-day trip to the Gulf region.

The US President also applauded the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio. “Marco stand up. What a great job you did on that. Thank you. Vice President JD Vance, Marco, the whole group worked with you, but there's a great, great job, and think they're actually getting along.”

Meanwhile, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has rejected the “trade” offer that Donald Trump claimed to put forth before India and Pakistan, allegedly getting them to agree to an “immediate ceasefire”. 

MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said “the issue of trade did not come up in any discussion.”

“From the time of Operation Sindhoor, which commenced on 7th May, till the understanding on cessation of firing and military action on 10th May, there were conversations between Indian and US leaders on the evolving military situation. The issue of trade did not come up in any of these discussions,” Randhir Jaiswal said.

After four days of exchanging fire, India and Pakistan reached a “bilateral understanding” to cease all fire on May 10.