New Delhi: US President Donald Trump has once again claimed credit for what he terms as “stopping a war between India and Pakistan.”

Trump made the latest claims on Monday (July 14) during his meeting with NATO secretary general Mark Rutte.

"We've been very successful in settling wars. You have India and Pakistan. You have Rwanda and the Congo, that was going on for 30 years. India, by the way, Pakistan would have been a nuclear war within another week, the way that was going. That was going very badly, and we did that through trade. I said, ‘we're not going to talk to you about trade unless you get this thing settled,’ and did, and they were both great, great leaders, and they were great,” said Trump, reported Times of India.

Despite India rejecting his claims in the past, Trump has repeatedly made the claim that the US facilitated the ceasefire between the South Asian neighbours in May by leveraging trade negotiations.

Trump’s latest comments led to the opposition Congress pointing out that the US President has made the same claim for the 22^nd time in 65 days.

“65 days. 22 times. The same claim. It keeps getting repeated,” Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh posted on X on Tuesday (July 15).

As The Wire has reported before, the US administration had also formalised the claim in a legal document, with US Commerce Secretary Howard W. Lutnick stating in a written filing to a New York federal court that Trump used trade access as an incentive to “avert a full-scale war” between India and Pakistan.

India has said that the ceasefire came after a talk between the Directors General of Military Operations. In a 35-minute call, prime minister Narendra Modi told Trump – according to the Indian government – that India had never, “at any level”, discussed a trade deal or third-party mediation with the United States during its military standoff with Pakistan.

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