US President Donald Trump on Thursday said he had warned India and Pakistan that he would impose 200 per cent tariffs if they did not stop fighting last summer, reiterating his claim that he helped stop a conflict between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.
Speaking at an event of the Board of Peace in Washington, Trump again asserted that he had ended eight wars within the first year of his second term in the White House.
India has consistently rejected claims of any third-party mediation in its bilateral issues.
Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif attended the event, along with leaders of other countries that have joined the Trump-led organisation.
During his address, Trump listed various conflicts he said he had helped resolve and invited the leaders of the respective countries to stand as he mentioned them. Calling on Sharif to rise, Trump said he had also spoken with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“He’s excited. He’s watching us right now,” Trump said, referring to Modi. He then added, “Pakistan and India. That was a big one. I think you should actually stand, come please stand just for a second. Pakistan and India. Thank you very much.”
Recounting last summer’s tensions between India and Pakistan, Trump said he was fond of Sharif as well as Pakistan’s Field Marshal and Chief of Defence Staff Asim Munir, whom he described as a “great guy.”
”…There was some fighting going on when I got to know him (Sharif) and your Field Marshal General. Great, Great General. Great Field Marshal, a great guy,” he said.
Trump repeated the assertion that Sharif had claimed he saved “25 million lives” when he stopped the war between India and Pakistan.
Earlier, Trump had claimed that Sharif said he had saved 10 million lives by ending the conflict between the two nations.
”You made that statement,” Trump said to Sharif. “I said 25 million lives, could have been much more actually, but it was really a beautiful thing…. That war was raging. Planes were being shot down, and it was Pakistan and India. ”And I got on the phone with both of them, and I knew him (Sharif) a little bit. I knew Prime Minister Modi very well, actually. I got to know Pakistan through a little trade. They were trying to make too good a deal, and I would get a little upset with them. And in the end, they got what they wanted, right? And they made a good deal, and I got to like them, the Prime Minister, the Field Marshal, who’s a tough man, a tough good fighter, serious fighter. I like good fighters, actually,” Trump said.
“And when I heard that they were fighting, I pick up a certain newspaper.… and I saw that Pakistan and India were really going at it. And then it got worse and worse, and… many planes were shot down. It was all out. And I called them, I said, ‘Listen, I’m not doing trade deals with you two guys, if you don’t settle this up’. They said, ‘No, no, no’,” Trump said, adding that neither of the two countries wanted to do that.
“I said, ‘No, it has to. If you don’t do it, I’m not doing a trade deal. We’re not doing a trade deal’,” he added.
“And they do a lot of business with the United States, and they sort of softened up all of a sudden. And all of a sudden, I read where there was a little bit of a pullback by one, then the other, and all of a sudden, we worked out a deal. But I said, ‘If you fight, I’m going to put 200% tariffs on each of your countries’,” which essentially would have meant that they could not have done any business with the US.
“One of them, I won’t say which one, said, ‘No, can’t do that’. They both wanted to fight. But when it came to money, nothing like money. When it came to losing a lot of money, they said, ‘I guess we don’t want to fight’. And we solved that deal in two-three days.
“And we did. We said these are two very powerful, two nuclear nations. And I don’t want to say what was going to happen, but, you know, bad things happen. So, Prime Minister, I want to thank you, because that was a very big deal. People have no idea. A lot of them say, ‘Oh, well, they weren’t fighting’. They were fighting, 11 jets were shot down, very expensive jets, and they were all in. Both of them were all in, and now they’re not. “And I think we’ll always be able to settle up with them. I really do. I think… a lot of progress was made, even in the relationship. And Prime Minister Modi also is a great man. He’s a great guy. They’re all great, but I was very proud of it.” He, however, did not specify which country’s jets he was referring to.
Trump has claimed credit for stopping the India-Pakistan conflict more than 80 times since May 10 last year, when he announced on social media that the two neighbours had agreed to a “full and immediate” ceasefire after talks mediated by the US.
India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7 last year, targeting terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in retaliation for the April 22 Pahalgam attack that killed 26 civilians.
India has been consistently maintaining that the understanding on cessation of hostilities with Pakistan was reached following direct talks between the Directors General of Military Operations (DGMOs) of the two militaries.
With inputs from agencies
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