In the aftermath of high-stake and much anticipated summit between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin on August 15th at Alaska, Trump has once again reiterated his role in thwarting a ‘nuclear conflict’ between India and Pakistan. US President makes repeated claims of mediating between New Delhi and Islamabad, inspite of India unequivocally and consistently asserting that the India-Pakistan issue is purely bilateral in nature, no foreign mediation is allowed and during Operation Sindoor, the hostilities were halted based on a request from the DGMO of Pakistan.
US President Trump defended his administration’s push and role in ending conflicts and drawing ceasefires. While speaking at an interview for Fox News, Trump was asked why he was devoting so much of time and energy to disputes far from the US shores. For which Trump replied that his efforts were aimed at saving lives and catastrophic escalations. “Number one, to save lives in all cases. Because wars are wars. See what would have happened with Cambodia as an example. I was involved with negotiating a trade”, Trump replied.
Later, Trump gave the example of India-Pakistan and asserted that ceasefire between India and Pakistan would not have been possible without his involvement. “Take a look at India and Pakistan. They were shooting down airplanes already. And that would have been may be nuclear. I would have said it was gonna get nuclear, but I was able to get it done. Number one is lives, number two is everything else”, Trump repeated his baseless claim of ending the conflict between India and Pakistan.
Donald Trump and the White House has so far taken credit for ending ‘six wars’ across the globe including the Thailand-Cambodia conflict, Rwanda-Democratic Republic of Congo war, Israel-Iran conflict, Egypt-Ethiopia hustle and the conflict between Serbia and Kosovo. With respect to India and Pakistan, White House has claimed that Washington pressurized both the nations to stop the conflict or else threatened that the trade deals and negotiations would be suspended.
However, New Delhi has outrightly rejected all these baseless claims of Washington DC, with solid evidence. While briefing the Parliament on Operation Sindoor, External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar reiterated that the cessation of hostilities between Islamabad and New Delhi was done through the DGMO channel of India and Pakistan. The DGMO of Pakistan requested the DGMO of India to end the hostilities and firing, upon which the decision was taken. Infact, there was no phone call conversation between President Trump and Prime Minister Modi from April 22nd –when Trump called to convey his grief and sympathy over the Pahalgam terror attack to June 17th-when PM Modi was in Canada, EAM Jaishankar had asserted.
