US President Donald Trump has once again claimed that he mediated peace between India and Pakistan earlier this year through trade, and asserted that he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize for “ending seven wars,” reported PTI.
Since May 10, when Trump announced on social media that India and Pakistan had agreed to a “full and immediate” ceasefire after a “long night” of US-brokered talks, he has repeated over 40 times that he “helped settle” the tensions between the two countries.
India, however, has consistently denied any third-party intervention.
Speaking at the American Cornerstone Institute Founder’s Dinner on Saturday, Trump said: “On the world stage, we are once again doing things that we are just respected at a level that we have never been respected before. We are forging peace agreements, and we are stopping wars. So we stopped wars between India and Pakistan, Thailand and Cambodia.”
“Think of India and Pakistan. Think of that. And you know how I stopped that — with trade. They want to trade. And I have great respect for both leaders. But when you take a look at all of these wars that we’ve stopped,” he added, before naming conflicts including Armenia-Azerbaijan, Kosovo-Serbia, Israel-Iran, Egypt-Ethiopia, and Rwanda-Congo.
Trump claimed that 60 per cent of these conflicts were stopped because of trade. “Like with India, I said, ‘look, we’re not going to do any trade if you’re going to fight and they have nuclear weapons. They stopped.’”
India had launched Operation Sindoor on May 7, targeting terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir following the April 22 Pahalgam attack that killed 26 civilians. After four days of cross-border drone and missile strikes, India and Pakistan announced a cessation of hostilities on May 10.
New Delhi has maintained that the understanding was reached through direct talks between the Directors General of Military Operations (DGMOs) of the two militaries. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has told Parliament that no foreign leader asked India to stop Operation Sindoor, while External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has categorically denied any third-party role in the ceasefire.
Trump also said he was told that if he could end the Russia-Ukraine war, he would deserve the Nobel Peace Prize. “I said, ‘Well, what about the seven others? I should get a Nobel Prize for each one.’ They said, ‘but if you stop Russia and Ukraine, sir, you should be able to get the Nobel.’ I said I stopped seven wars. That’s one war, and that’s a big one.”
The US President added he had initially thought the Russia-Ukraine conflict would be “easy” to resolve because of his ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin, but admitted he was “disappointed” in him.
*With PTI inputs
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