Trump Again Claims to Have Ended India-Pakistan Conflict Where ‘Ten Planes Were Downed’
New Delhi: Less than a week after India and the US announced a framework for the first tranche of their long-gestating trade agreement, President Donald Trump has again repeated his claim of having mediated the Indo-Pakistani ceasefire in May using trade as leverage, an assertion New Delhi has previously denied.
In a TV interview on Tuesday (February 10) US time Trump also said that “ten planes were shot down” during the conflict.
Reiterating his claim of having settled eight global wars, Trump told Fox Business anchor and his former National Economic Council director Larry Kudlow that “at least six” of these were ended by his use of tariffs.
“In other words, I said: ‘if you don't settle this war, I'm going to charge you tariffs’. Because I don't want to see people getting killed,” said Trump, adding to claim that in the case of India and Pakistan he had averted a conflict where “ten planes were shot down” and one that he believes could have escalated into a nuclear war.
“Without tariffs, that wouldn't have happened,” he said.
Trump has repeatedly stated that he used trade as leverage to bring the conflict to a close but India has denied US mediation. New Delhi said in June that Prime Minister Narendra Modi phoned Trump that month to deny his claims.
India when asked about Trump's remarks surrounding nuclear warfare had also said that the conflict, in which multiple people on either side were killed, was “entirely in the conventional domain”.
Although Trump said that ten aircraft were downed – he had earlier offered lower figures – he did not specify which side lost how many planes.
Islamabad has claimed to have downed seven Indian aircraft and New Delhi has maintained it took out six Pakistani planes. Both sides have denied the other's claims.
The president also claimed that Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had credited him with saving “ten million lives” during the conflict. It is not clear when Sharif said that, but he had told the audience during the ‘Gaza Peace Summit’ in October that Trump saved “millions of people” with his intervention.
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