Trump reiterates claim of averting conflicts through tariffs: 'It did work with India, Pakistan’

Trump also cited several other global disputes he claimed to have helped defuse using similar economic pressure tactics/

US President Donald Trump, this weekend, once again claimed that his trade and tariff threats helped avert a potential “nuclear war” between India and Pakistan during the May 2025 military escalation, asserting that his warning to withdraw US market access forced both nations to back down.

In an interview with CBS News’s 60 Minutes, Trump said the two countries were “on the brink of nuclear conflict” before his intervention. According to him, his administration’s economic leverage was decisive in bringing New Delhi and Islamabad to the table.

“It did work with India and it did work with Pakistan and it did work with 60 per cent of those countries," he noted.

"I can tell you if it wasn't for tariffs and trade, I wouldn't have been able to make the deals. But I stopped as an example. India does a lot of business with us. They were going to war. They were going to have a nuclear war with Pakistan,” remarked the US President.

“That was a bad war. Shoot down airplanes all over the place. That was going to be a bad war. And I told both of them, ‘if you guys don't work out a deal fast, you're not going to do any business with the United States.’ And they do a lot of business with the United States and they were both great leaders and they worked out a deal and they stopped the war,” he added.

Trump’s remarks refer to the May 2025 escalation following Operation Sindoor, a series of precision strikes on nine terrorist camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK) in retaliation for the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack that claimed 26 lives.

While Trump has often credited his tariff diplomacy for defusing global conflicts, India has firmly rejected his claims. New Delhi maintains that the ceasefire with Pakistan was achieved independently through direct communication between the Director Generals of Military Operations (DGMOs), without any third-party mediation.

Reiterating its long-standing position, India has also emphasised that all issues with Pakistan, including those related to Jammu and Kashmir, are to be resolved bilaterally.

During the interview, Trump went on to cite several other global disputes he claimed to have helped defuse using similar economic pressure tactics, listing conflicts between Cambodia and Thailand, Kosovo and Serbia, Congo and Rwanda, Israel and Iran, Egypt and Ethiopia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, and Israel and Hamas.

“I brought a little list of these wars. How many did I solve: Cambodia-Thailand, Kosovo-Serbia, Congo-Rwanda. Pakistan-India - that was going to be a beauty; they shot down seven planes. Israel and Iran. You've heard about that one. Egypt and Ethiopia. That's another beauty. Ethiopia built a big dam where there's no water going to the Nile. Armenia and Azerbaijan," Trump said, further adding, "And if you take a look at Israel and Hamas, which is a rough little situation, but it's going to be,” hailing what he described as his success in conflict resolution through trade-based diplomacy.

(With inputs from ANI)