Trump reiterates claim he stopped India-Pakistan war, says 7 jets were downed
Washington: US President Donald Trump has once again taken credit for stopping a potential nuclear war between India and Pakistan, asserting that seven fighter jets were shot down during what he described as “raging” hostilities and that he used trade pressure to halt the hostilities.
According to Kashmir Media Service, talking to the press at the White House, Trump said, “I have stopped all of these wars. A big one would have been India and Pakistan…”.
“The war with India and Pakistan was the next level that was going to be a nuclear war… They already shot down seven jets,” he told reporters. “I said, ‘You want to trade? We are not doing any trade or anything with you if you keep fighting, you’ve got 24 hours to settle it’. They said, ‘Well, there’s no more war going on’.”
Trump claimed that his use of tariffs and trade pressure was decisive. “I had tariffs and trade, and I was able to say, ‘If you go fight and want to kill everybody, that is okay, but I am going to charge you each a 100% tariff when you trade with us’. They all gave up,” he said.
This is not the first time Trump has made such claims. In July, he had said that five fighter jets were shot down before the two sides ceased hostilities, though he did not specify which side’s aircraft were downed or what the jets were.
The US president has brought up the India-Pakistan conflict several times before. He has repeatedly said that he was responsible for brokering a ceasefire on May 10, which Washington announced after what he called “a long night” of talks. Since then, he has claimed dozens of times that he “helped settle” the tensions.
Notably, during the fighting in May, Pakistan downed six Indian military jets, including at least three Rafale fighters.
In June, an Indian defence official admitted that the country’s air force “lost some aircraft” on the night of May 7. Captain Shiv Kumar, India’s defence attaché, made the acknowledgement at a seminar in Indonesia. Earlier, India’s Chief of Defence Staff, General Anil Chauhan, also acknowledged that an unspecified number of its fighter jets were shot down.
