
"Why did PM Modi compromise country's honour for trade?": Congress after Trump again claims to have stopped Indo-Pak conflict
Congress, in a post on X, said, 'Trump said, Five jets were shot down in the war between India and Pakistan. Along with this, he said for the 24th time that I stopped the India-Pakistan war by threatening trade.'
'Trump is constantly repeating this, and Narendra Modi is silent. Why did Narendra Modi compromise the country's honour for trade?' the post further reads.
https://x.com/INCIndia/status/1946393121576853850
This came after US President Donald Trump on Saturday again claimed to have played a role in stopping the India-Pakistan conflict. Trump stated that he halted the escalation with the assistance of a trade deal.
'We stopped a lot of wars. And these were serious, India and Pakistan, that was going on. Planes were being shot out of there. I think five jets were shot down, actually. These are two serious nuclear countries, and they were hitting each other. You know, it seems like a new form of warfare. You saw it recently when you looked at what we did in Iran, where we knocked out their nuclear capability, totally knocked out that,' he said.
'But India and Pakistan were going at it, and they were back and forth, and it was getting bigger and bigger, and we got it solved through trade. We said, you guys want to make a trade deal. We're not making a trade deal if you're going to be throwing around weapons and maybe nuclear weapons, both very powerful nuclear states,' Trump added.
Earlier on Monday, Trump reiterated his claim that he stopped the escalation of the recent India-Pakistan conflict after the Pahalgam terror attack.
Trump made these remarks during his meeting with the Secretary General of NATO, Mark Rutte.
'We have been very successful in settling wars, India, Pakistan... India, by the way, Pakistan would have been a nuclear war within another week, the way that was going. It was going very badly,' Trump stated.
He pointed to his strategy of using trade as leverage, stating, 'We did that through trade. I said, we are not going to talk to you about trade unless you get this thing settled, and they did.'
In June, Trump told reporters on Air Force One, 'You know, I did something that people don't talk about, and I don't talk about very much, but we solved a big problem, a nuclear problem potentially with India and with Pakistan.' (ANI)

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Free Malaysia Today
an hour ago
- Free Malaysia Today
Trump's renewed interest in Pakistan has India recalibrating China ties
India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi told US President Donald Trump that the ceasefire was achieved through India-Pakistan army commanders' talks. (EPA Images pic) NEW DELHI : US President Donald Trump's lunch meeting with Pakistan's military chief prompted a private diplomatic protest from India in a warning to Washington about risks to their bilateral ties while New Delhi is recalibrating relations with China as a hedge, officials and analysts said. The meeting and other tensions in the US-India relationship, after decades of flourishing ties, have cast a shadow in trade negotiations, they said, as Trump's administration weighs tariffs against one of its major partners in the Indo-Pacific. India blames Pakistan, especially its military establishment, for supporting what it calls cross-border terrorism and has told the US it is sending the wrong signals by wooing Field Marshal Asim Munir, three senior Indian government officials directly aware of the matter told Reuters. 'It has created a sore spot that will hamper relations going forward,' they said. Pakistan denies accusations that it supports rebels who attack Indian targets and that New Delhi has provided no evidence that it is involved. US-India ties have strengthened in the past two decades despite minor hiccups, at least partly because both countries seek to counter China. The current problems are different, said Michael Kugelman, a Washington-based senior fellow at the Asia Pacific Foundation think tank. 'The frequency and intensity with which the US is engaging with Pakistan, and seemingly not taking Indian concerns into account, especially after India's recent conflict with Pakistan, has contributed to a bit of a bilateral malaise,' Kugelman said. 'The concern this time around is that one of the triggers for broader tensions, that being Trump's unpredictability, is extending into the trade realm with his approach to tariffs,' he said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's office and India's foreign ministry did not respond to a request for comment. The foreign ministry has previously said that it had 'taken note' of the Trump-Munir meeting. A US official said they do not comment on private diplomatic communications and that the US enjoys strong relationships with both India and Pakistan. 'These relationships stand on their own merits, and we do not compare our bilateral relationships with one another,' the US official said. Lunch at the White House The US seems to have taken a different tack on Pakistan after a brief conflict broke out between the nuclear-armed rivals in May when India launched strikes on what it called terrorist targets across the border in response to a deadly attack on tourists from the majority Hindu community in Indian Kashmir the previous month. After four days of aerial dogfights, missile and drone attacks, the two sides agreed to a cease-fire. Hindu-majority India and Islamic Pakistan have skirmished regularly and fought three full-scale wars since independence in 1947, two of them over the disputed Kashmir region. A few weeks after the May fighting, Trump hosted Munir for lunch at the White House, a major boost in ties with the country, which had largely languished under Trump's first term and Joe Biden. It was the first time a US president had hosted the head of Pakistan's army, considered the most powerful man in the country, at the White House unaccompanied by senior Pakistani civilian officials. Indian leaders have said Munir's view of India and Pakistan is steeped in religion. 'Tourists were murdered in front of their families after ascertaining their faith,' Indian foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said in May, referring to the Kashmir attack. 'To understand that, you've got to also see…you have a Pakistani leadership, especially their army chief, who is driven by an extreme religious outlook', Jaishankar said. Pakistan says it is Modi who is driven by religious extremism, and that his brand of Hindu nationalism has trampled on the rights of India's large Muslim minority. Modi and the Indian government say they do not discriminate against minorities. Munir's meeting in the White House added to India's chagrin over Trump's repeated insistence that he averted nuclear war between the two nations by threatening to stop trade negotiations with them. The comment drew a sharp response from Modi, who told Trump that the ceasefire was achieved through talks between army commanders of the two nations, and not US mediation. In the days following his June 18 meeting with Munir, people from Modi's office and India's national security adviser's office made separate calls to their US counterparts to register a protest, two of the officials said. The protest has not been previously reported. 'We have communicated to the US our position on cross-border terrorism, which is a red line for us,' said a senior Indian official. 'These are difficult times … Trump's inability to understand our concerns does create some wrinkle in ties,' he added, seeking anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter. Trump and Munir discussed continuation of a counter-terrorism collaboration, under which the US has previously provided weapons to Pakistan, a non-Nato US ally, and talked about ways to further strengthen ties, a Pakistani readout of the meeting said. 'That raised concern in New Delhi that any arms Pakistan receives from the US could be turned on India if the neighbours end up in conflict again,' two of the officials said. Harder stance 'Despite what used to be public displays of bonhomie between Trump and Modi, India has been taking a slightly harder stance against the US in recent weeks, while trade discussions have also slowed,' the Indian officials and an Indian industry lobbyist said. Modi declined an invitation from Trump to visit Washington after the G7 meeting in Canada in June. Earlier this month, New Delhi proposed retaliatory duties against the US at the World Trade Organization, showing trade talks were not going as smoothly as they were before the India-Pakistan clashes. 'India, like other nations, is trying to figure out a way to deal with Trump and is recalibrating ties with China as a hedge,' said Harsh Pant, foreign policy head at India's Observer Research Foundation think tank. 'Certainly there is an outreach to China and I think it is mutual…China is also reaching out,' he said. Last week, India's Jaishankar made his first visit to Beijing since a deadly 2020 border clash between Indian and Chinese troops. India is also making moves to ease restrictions on investments from China that were imposed following the 2020 clash. The thaw comes despite India's prickly relations with China and Beijing's close ties and military support to Pakistan. However, New Delhi's concern about Trump's own engagement with China, which has ranged from conciliatory to confrontational, appears to have contributed to its shift in stance on Beijing. 'With an unpredictable dealmaker in the White House, New Delhi cannot rule out Sino-US rapprochement,' said Christopher Clary, an associate professor of political science at the University at Albany, New York. 'India is troubled by Chinese help to Pakistan and growing Chinese influence elsewhere in India's near abroad, such as Bangladesh. 'Yet New Delhi has largely concluded that it should respond to creeping Chinese influence by focusing its pressures on its nearest neighbours and not on China,' Clary said.


Free Malaysia Today
an hour ago
- Free Malaysia Today
Japan's election triggers cautious market response
The yen has strengthened slightly against the US dollar and euro. (Reuters pic) LONDON : As far as investors are concerned, Japan's upper house election has been a sell on the rumour, buy (a little) on the fact. Japanese markets are closed for the Marine Day public holiday, so liquidity has been lacking, but so far the yen is up a shade on the dollar and euro while Nikkei futures NKC1 traded in Chicago are much in line with Friday's cash close. Wall Street futures are up a fraction, and European futures are down a touch. While the ruling coalition lost control of the upper house by three seats, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba seems to be safe for now, though he will have to find support from minor parties to pass legislation. The government can also continue its fraught tariff negotiations with the US administration. The talks still seem deadlocked, partly over agricultural imports, which are politically and culturally very sensitive for Japan, as President Donald Trump's arbitrary Aug 1 deadline approaches fast. The EU is in much the same situation. US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick says he's confident a deal can be struck, but the EU side is preparing a list of US products for retaliation levies. The EU is also trying to use China as leverage with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and European Council president Antonio Costa meeting with President Xi Jinping there on Thursday. Meanwhile, reports suggest Trump might meet Xi sometime in October or November, with the US already having allowed the export of chips to China apparently in return for a resumption of rare earth shipments. Markets are assuming the worst will be avoided on tariffs, though analysts suspect the effective US tariff rate could well be a bit above the 1930's levies that contributed so much to the Great Depression. Much of that optimism rests on earnings with the first of the megacaps reporting this week in the shape of Alphabet and Tesla. Results from Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics should also confirm the windfall from a ramp up in global defence spending. The diary for the rest of Monday is virtually blank, but there's always Trump to watch.


The Star
2 hours ago
- The Star
As US wildfires rage, firefighters clean toilets after Trump staff cuts, critics say
(Reuters) -The U.S. Forest Service faced criticism from current and former employees who say federal workforce reductions under the Trump administration have left fire teams understaffed, as the country grapples with decade-high U.S. wildfire numbers this year. The agency, which oversees the nation's largest wildland firefighting force, rejected those claims, saying it has sufficient resources. However, more than a dozen active and retired U.S. Forest Service employees told Reuters that the agency is struggling to fill critical roles after approximately 5,000 employees - roughly 15% of its workforce - quit in the past five months. Accounts from firefighters in Oregon and New Mexico, as well as a fire chief recruiting support staff in the Pacific Northwest, said the vacancies have led to personnel held back from supporting frontline firefighting because of administrative duties. The crew leader on an Oregon blaze said her team went hungry for several days, ran short of medical supplies and had to scrounge for chainsaw fuel after support staff quit the agency during two rounds of "fork in the road" buyouts. "I had guys who were going to bed hungry after working 16 hours," said the crew leader on the Alder Springs Fire, who asked not to be named for fear of losing her job. National and local USFS officials say, however, the force is ready for what is expected to be a worse than average fire year in California, the Pacific Northwest and the northern Rockies, according to National Interagency Fire Center forecasts. "Our fire staff feels very confident in our staffing levels going into this fire season," said USFS Public Affairs Officer Isabella Isaksen, who represents USFS operations in central Oregon. Isaksen said food problems on the Alder Springs Fire were due to a new caterer and were quickly resolved. She said medical, chainsaw and other supplies were available on the 3,400-acre blaze that triggered evacuations in two counties. 'THEY ARE READY' The Trump administration pledged not to cut firefighting positions and other public safety jobs in firings, voluntary resignations and early retirements meant to raise efficiency at the USFS which manages 193 million acres of land (78 million hectares), roughly about the size of Texas. USFS employees that Reuters interviewed for this story said the loss of thousands of foresters, biologists, trail builders and campground managers was having a knock-on effect on firefighters. Not only are firefighters having to cover empty positions at ranger stations but they also have lost hundreds of peers who each year switched from regular jobs to take on firefighting support roles during the fire season, which typically runs from spring to fall, these people said. USFS Chief Tom Schultz on Wednesday told agency managers to make all of these fire-qualified, so-called "red-carded" staff available for what he called an "extremely challenging" fire year, according to a memo seen by Reuters. Year to date, wildland firefighters have been called to nearly 41,000 blazes, by far the highest number in federal data going back to at least 2015. Last month Schultz told a U.S. Senate committee he was trying to temporarily hire back some 1,400 fire-qualified, "red-carded" support staff who took buyouts. "I do believe they are ready," Schultz said when asked about preparedness for the 2025 fire year. FIREFIGHTERS MOW LAWNS Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, who oversees the USFS, said in June at a meeting of Western state governors in New Mexico that the agency was on target to hire 11,300 firefighters by mid July, outpacing hiring over the past three years. As of June 29, 11,236 or 99% of that number had been hired, slightly below last year's level, according to the most recent USDA data. The USDA disputed claims that staff shortages are endangering communities, forests, and firefighters. "We are providing the resources needed to ensure the Forest Service has the strongest and most prepared wildland firefighting force in the world," a USDA spokesperson said. New Mexico U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich has criticized the Trump administration's firing and rehiring of 3,400 USFS probationary staff, three-quarters of whom were red-carded, as well as what he called its indiscriminate, agency-wide staff buyouts. 'Wildfire season is well underway, and thanks to DOGE and Donald Trump, the U.S. Forest Service is being gutted, leaving communities ill equipped to fight deadly wildfires," Heinrich said in a emailed statement on July 11. The Forest Service says it does not have enough wildland firefighters for the country's "wildfire crisis" and relies on red-carded staff to "boost wildland firefighting capacity." Yet, not everyone close to the Forest Service sees problems. Steve Ellis, chairman of the National Association of Forest Service Retirees, said his checks with fire staff in Oregon turned up no reports of firefighters going hungry or other support issues. But Riva Duncan, a fire duty officer on a New Mexico blaze, said even firefighters were being used to plug gaps left by job losses, exacerbating longstanding shortages of personnel to operate fire engines. "They're answering phones at the front desk, or cleaning toilets at campgrounds or mowing the lawn at administrative sites," said Duncan, a retired USFS fire chief who reenlists during fire season and helps run Grassroots Wildland Firefighters, a federal firefighter advocacy group. The fire staff officerin the Pacific Northwest said support staff had been told by managers they had to meet the Trump administration's increased timber sales and oil and gas production targets, with fewer employees, before helping firefighters. "They can claim we get all the support we need, but in reality, it isn't even close," said the fire chief, who asked not to be named for fear of retaliation.