US President Donald Trump has once again repeated his claim that he brokered a ceasefire deal between India and Pakistan through "trade talks."
"And by the way, I don't want to say I did, but I sure as hell helped settle the problem between Pakistan and India last week, which was getting more and more hostile," Trump said while addressing US military personnel at the al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar.
"And all of a sudden, you'll start seeing missiles of a different type. And we got it settled. I hope, I hope I don't walk out of here and two days later find out that it's not settled, but I think it is settled," he said.
Repeating his claim that the US used trade as leverage to broker peace between the two countries, Trump said, referring to talks with India and Pakistan, "Let's do trade instead of war. And Pakistan was very happy with that, and India was very happy with that, and I think they're on the way, you know, they have been fighting for about 1,000 years in all fairness."
"So I said, you know, I could settle that up. I can settle anything. Let me set it up. Let's get them all together. How long have you been fighting? About 1,000 years. Oh, that's a lot. I'm not sure about that. I'm not sure about settling. That's a tough one. They've been fighting for a long time, but we got that settled. Nobody, boy, everybody was very happy. I'll tell you that looked like it was really going to be escalating out of control," he added.
Trump also claimed that India has agreed to eliminate tariffs on US goods exported to the country.
"India is one of the highest tariff nations in the world. It is very hard to sell into India. They have offered us a deal where basically they are willing to -- literally -- they charge us no tariff. We go from the highest tariff -- you could not do business in India, we are not even in the top 30 in India because the tariff is so high -- to a point where they have actually told us that there will be no tariff. Would you say that is the difference? They were the highest, and now they are saying no tariff," Trump said.
Responding to Trump's statements, Congress on Thursday questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi's silence over his claims on trade deals and Operation Sindoor.
"The Commerce Minister is in Washington DC and President Trump has made yet another grand announcement from Doha. There is total chuppi from our PM. What has he agreed to and what linkage is there between this and the stoppage of Operation Sindoor?" AICC general secretary Jairam Ramesh asked in a post on X.
The US President was the first to announce a ceasefire deal between India and Pakistan on May 10, even before any official statement from the two countries, sparking a wave of criticism from the opposition parties in India.
A day later, Trump claimed that India and Pakistan agreed to the ceasefire after US brought up trade during the negotiations.
Trump's claims were denied by the Ministry of External Affairs, which stated that trade was not brought up in any of the conversations between Indian and US leaders during Operation Sindoor, India's military operation against Pakistan.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Thursday stressed that India's policy regarding third-party interference in issues related to Kashmir and Pakistan remains intact.
"Our relations and dealings with Pakistan will be strictly bilateral. That is a national consensus for years, and there is absolutely no change in that," he said.
India carried out precision strikes on nine terror sites in Pakistan early on May 7, in response to the April 22 terror attack that killed 26 civilians in Jammu Kashmir's Pahalgam.
Subsequently, Pakistan responded with cross border firing, shelling and attacks on Indian military bases which was successfully thwarted by the military. Atleast 13 people, including children were killed as Pakistani airstrikes hit Jammu Kashmir's border areas of Poonch.
The Indian military targeted eight Pakistani air bases with missiles and other long-range weapons on May 10 in retaliation for Pakistan's attempts to strike 26 military facilities.
The hostilities ended with an understanding on stopping the military actions following talks between the Director Generals of Military Operations of both sides on the afternoon of May 10.
(With inputs from PTI)
