Can’t trade with people shooting at each other: Trump reiterates his India-Pak ceasefire brokering claim

India and Pakistan reached an understanding on May 10 to end the conflict after four days of intense cross-border drone and missile strikes.

New York/Washington: US President Donald Trump on Friday repeated his claim that he stopped India and Pakistan from fighting and told the two nations that his administration cannot trade with people that are shooting at each other.

“We stopped India and Pakistan from fighting. I believe that could have turned out into a nuclear disaster,” Trump said during a press conference in the Oval Office with billionaire Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who is leaving the Trump administration after helming the Department of Government Efficiency.

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Trump added that he wants to thank the “leaders of India, the leaders of Pakistan, and I want to thank my people also. We talked trade and we said ‘we can’t trade with people that are shooting at each other and potentially using nuclear weapons’.” Trump said that leaders in India and Pakistan are “great leaders” and “they understood, and they agreed, and that all stopped”.

“We are stopping others from fighting also, because ultimately, we can fight better than anybody. We have the greatest military in the world. We have the greatest leaders in the world,” Trump said.

About two weeks after the horrific April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir in which 26 civilians were killed, India launched Operation Sindoor targeting terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

India and Pakistan reached an understanding on May 10 to end the conflict after four days of intense cross-border drone and missile strikes.

Indian government sources in New Delhi have maintained that the Director Generals of Military Operations (DGMOs) of India and Pakistan reached an understanding to stop all firings and military actions on land, air and sea, with immediate effect. They said no third party was involved.

Trump has repeatedly claimed that he “helped settle” the tensions between India and Pakistan and that he told the nuclear-armed South Asian neighbours that America will do a “lot of trade” with them if they stopped the conflict.