Cancel all deals: Trump claims he stopped India-Pak conflict with trade threat
US President Donald Trump has once again claimed that he prevented a potential nuclear war between India and Pakistan by threatening to cancel all trade agreements with both nations.Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump said, 'I asked Howard Lutnick to call and tell India & Pakistan that Trump wants to cancel all trade deals with both countries, if they continue the war. Both nations called back & then stopped fighting.'advertisementReferring to the conflict that reportedly ended on May 10 after four days of drone and missile strikes across the India-Pakistan border, Trump took credit for deescalating the situation. 'We did some great work. India and Pakistan. That was going to be maybe nuclear. We did that. We did a lot of work. I don't know if there's ever been a president that's done much more,' he said.
Trump elaborated further, saying he directed senior officials to cut ties unless both sides stopped the fighting. 'Serbia, Kosovo is going to go at it, going to be a big war. I said, 'you go at it, there's no trade with the United States. That's what happened with India and Pakistan. I was negotiating with both of them and I said to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, I said to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, cancel all deals with India and Pakistan. They're not trading with us because they're in a war,' he said.advertisementAccording to Trump, the message prompted both nations to back down. 'They called back. 'What do we do?' I said, 'Look, you want to have trade with the United States. It's great, but you want to go and start using nuclear weapons on each other. We're not going to allow that.' And they both agreed, both have great leaders. They both agreed not to do it. So we did a lot,' Trump claimed.Trump also expressed optimism about future trade ties with India, suggesting that new negotiations could open the Indian market further for US companies. 'Some of the bigger countries, India, I think we're going to reach a deal where we have the right to go in and trade. Right now it's restricted. You can't walk in there. You can't even think about it. We're looking to get a full trade barrier dropping, which is unthinkable and I'm not sure that that's going to happen, but as of this moment, we've agreed to go into India and trade,' he said.He added, 'We're going to be trading in China. That's going to come a little bit down the road, but we're going to be trading in China. We have a lot of great things going and we're getting along with countries, but some will be disappointed. Because they're going to have to pay tariffs, and we've taken in already hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs, no inflation.'advertisementWhile Trump has repeatedly claimed he 'helped settle' the tensions between India and Pakistan, India has maintained that the ceasefire understanding was the outcome of direct talks between the Directors General of Military Operations (DGMOs) of both countries.In a recent 35-minute phone conversation with Trump, Prime Minister Narendra Modi reportedly said that India does not and will "never accept" any form of mediation. He clarified that the discussions to end hostilities were initiated at Pakistan's request and conducted directly between the two militaries.- EndsMust Watch
IN THIS STORY#Donald Trump#Pakistan
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