U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday he threatened to cancel all trade deals with India and Pakistan, which forced the two South Asian nuclear powers to stop their conflict in May.
“I asked (Commerce Secretary) Howard Lutnick to call and tell India and Pakistan that Trump wants to cancel all trade deals with both countries, if they continue the war. Both nations called back and then stopped fighting,” he said.
Trump shared new details of his intervention in one of the deadliest conflicts between India and Pakistan who attacked each other with missiles and heavy shelling and engaged in one of the largest aerial dogfights between their air forces from May 7 to 10.
Speaking to reporters at the White House, he said the conflict between the two neighbors could have gone nuclear, and that he prevented that scenario.
https://viewsnews.brandbrilliance.org/trump-asim-munir-was-extremely-influential-in-stopping-pakistan-india-war/
“We did some great work. India and Pakistan. That was going to be maybe nuclear. We did that. We did a lot of work. I don’t know if there’s ever been a president that’s done much more,” he said.
Recounting his conversations, he said, “I was negotiating with both of them and I said to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, I said to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, cancel all deals with India and Pakistan. They’re not trading with us because they’re in a war.”
Both countries, Trump said, called back.
“They called back. ‘What do we do?’ I said, ‘Look, you want to have trade with the United States. It’s great, but you want to go and start using nuclear weapons on each other. We’re not going to allow that.’ And they both agreed, both have great leaders. They both agreed not to do it. So we did a lot.”
https://viewsnews.brandbrilliance.org/trump-says-his-intervention-with-trade-leverage-averted-india-pakistan-nuclear-war/
On prospects of a nuclear deal with India, Trump said “some of the bigger countries, India, I think we’re going to reach a deal where we have the right to go in and trade. Right now it’s restricted. You can’t walk in there. You can’t even think about it.
“We’re looking to get a full trade barrier dropping, which is unthinkable and I’m not sure that that’s going to happen, but as of this moment, we’ve agreed to go into India and trade,” he said.
The U.S. president also expected expanding trade with China.
“We’re going to be trading in China. That’s going to come a little bit down the road, but we’re going to be trading in China. We have a lot of great things going and we’re getting along with countries, but some will be disappointed. Because they’re going to have to pay tariffs, and we’ve taken in already hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs, no inflation.”
https://viewsnews.brandbrilliance.org/modi-contradicts-trump-says-us-had-no-mediatory-role-in-india-pakistan-ceasefire/
While Islamabad has openly acknowledged President Trump’s mediatory role on winding down the conflict and has decided to nominate him for 2026 Nobel Peace Prize, India has been reluctant to publicly accept Washington’s diplomatic effort behind May 10 ceasefire.
New Delhi, which has long been averse to any third-party mediating the conflict between the two countries and claims that the two countries reached a ceasefire agreement following direct talks between the Directors General of Military Operations (DGMOs) of both countries.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi insists India will not accept any form of mediation and that the two countries should resolve the disputes bilaterally.
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Ali Imran is a Washington-based journalist, who has worked for leading world news organizations as a correspondent, expert and in editorial positions. He is a published author and poet.
