U.S. President Donald Trump believes up to five military aircraft were shot down during India-Pakistan in May, when the two countries clashed in one of the biggest dogfights in recent history over a terror attack in Pahalgam area of Indian-administered Kashmir.
However, Trump did not specify which jets were downed in the May 7-10 conflict that pushed the region into chaos amid fears of the clash turning into a nuclear conflagration between the two South Asian rivals.
Pakistan claimed it shot down five Indian warplanes including high-tech French Rafales when Indian attacked it on May 7 after alleging that the perpetrators of April 22 attack in Kashmir were linked to a Pakistan-based militant group.
There have been no reports of any Pakistan jet losses during the conflict.
Speaking at a dinner he hosted for Republican lawmakers at the White House on Friday, Trump noted, “In fact, planes were being shot out of the air. Five, five, four or five, but I think five jets were shot down actually.”
https://viewsnews.brandbrilliance.org/trump-says-his-intervention-with-trade-leverage-averted-india-pakistan-nuclear-war/
Pakistan Air Force later said it had downed six Indian fighter jets.
New Delhi reluctantly admitted the loss of its fighter jets when India’s Chief of Defence Staff Anil Chauhan acknowledged in an interview with Bloomberg that India lost planes. “What is important is why they went down,” he noted in June.
Trump has said it was the U.S. pressure on both sides that resulted in a ceasefire on May 10, which he announced on the social media.
He showcases the example of mediating India-Pakistan conflict as a foreign policy success of his administration, especially on working peace deals in various conflict situations.
https://viewsnews.brandbrilliance.org/india-admits-loss-of-fighter-jets-in-pakistan-clash/
Pakistan has openly praised President Trump for the saving the region and the world from the nightmarish scenario of a full-blown war between the two nuclear-armed powers.
Islamabad has also nominated Trump for 2026 Nobel Peace Prize.
However, India has publicly contradicted President Trump, arguing that the ceasefire was achieved through direct communication between New Delhi and Islamabad, without third-party involvement.
On Friday, Trump said: “You had India, Pakistan, that was going… in fact, planes were being shot out of the air…four or five. But I think five jets were shot down actually…that was getting worse and worse, wasn’t it?
https://viewsnews.brandbrilliance.org/modi-contradicts-trump-says-us-had-no-mediatory-role-in-india-pakistan-ceasefire/
“That was looking like it was going to go, these are two serious nuclear countries, and they were hitting each other,” he said.
“But India and Pakistan were going at it, and they were back and forth, and it was getting bigger and bigger. And we got it solved through trade. We said ‘You guys want to make a trade deal. We’re not making a trade deal if you’re going to be throwing around weapons and maybe nuclear weapons. Both very powerful nuclear states,” Trump said.
He said his administration achieved more in six months than almost any other administration could accomplish in eight years.
“Something I’m very proud of, we stopped a lot of wars, a lot of wars. And these were serious wars,” Trump said.
Follow for more: Twitter (X) | Facebook | Instagram | LinkeIn
Huma Nisar is Associate Editor at Views and News. She also writes opinion articles on health, society and diet.
