Trump says US intervention stopped nuclear war between India and Pakistan

Washington: US. President Donald Trump said Monday his administration had helped to avoid a nuclear war between India and Pakistan, crediting trade diplomacy for defusing tensions between the two South Asian neighbours.

“They were going at it hot and heavy, and it was seemingly not going to stop,” Trump told reporters at the White House, referring to India’s launching of military operation “Sindoor” and Pakistan’s tough retaliation.

Trump on Saturday announced a ceasefire in the India-Pakistan military conflict following the April 22 armed attack in which 26 tourists were killed in Indian-Occupied Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam city.

“I said, come on, we’re going to do a lot of trade with you guys,” President Trump said, referring to at a news conference before departing for Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar in the Middle East.

“Come on, we’re going to do a lot of trade with you guys, let’s stop it, let’s stop it. If you stop it, we’ll do a trade. If you don’t stop it, we’re not going to do any trade.

“People have never really used trade the way I used it. That I can tell you. And all of a sudden, they said, I think we’re going to stop. And they have,” he added.

“And they did it for a lot of reasons, but trade is a big one. We’re going to do a lot of trade with Pakistan, we’re going to do a lot of trade with India.”

Trump continued: “We stopped a nuclear conflict, I think it could have been a bad nuclear war, millions of people could have been killed, so I’m very proud of that.”

On Saturday night, President Trump also offered to mediate the decades old Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan.