US President Donald Trump on Tuesday once again claimed that he had stopped a war between India and Pakistan last year, which he said could have escalated into a nuclear conflict, by using tariffs as leverage.
Speaking in an interview to Fox Business, Trump said he had settled “eight wars”, adding that at least six of them were resolved through the use of tariffs.
“If you don’t settle this war, I’m going to charge you tariffs, because I don’t want to see people getting killed,” he said, explaining his approach.
Referring to India and Pakistan, Trump claimed the situation had been extremely volatile. “It would have been a nuclear war, in my opinion. They were really going at it; 10 planes were shot down,” he said.
He further claimed that the Prime Minister of Pakistan had told him that Trump had “saved at least 10 million lives” by getting the two countries to stop fighting, asserting that tariffs played a decisive role in preventing escalation.
Trump has repeatedly taken credit for stopping the India-Pakistan conflict, making the claim more than 80 times since May 10 last year, when he announced on social media that the two neighbours had agreed to a “full and immediate” ceasefire following talks mediated by Washington.
India, however, has consistently denied any third-party intervention in de-escalating tensions.
India had launched Operation Sindoor on May 7 last year, targeting terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, in retaliation for the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 civilians.