US President Donald Trump has again brought up the recent India-Pakistan conflict, reiterating his claim that the US helped in averting a nuclear escalation between the two Asian neighbours. India maintains that the May conflict ended through a ceasefire sought by Pakistan after suffering heavy damage. Pakistan had credited Trump, echoing him as it has been doing to gain the US attention.
Trump said his main goal is to “save lives”, trying to justify his involvement in conflicts worldwide, even if those didn’t impact the US on a significant scale, in an interview with Fox News, after his unsuccessful summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska.
His response came to a question by Fox News’s Sean Hannity, who sought to know if he wanted to save the world.
“Number one, to save lives in all cases, because wars are wars. When you see what would have happened with Cambodia as an example. Now, I’m not involved, but I was involved in negotiating a trade deal. And I said, you guys are going to be fighting Thailand, Cambodia, so many different,” the President replied.
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Bringing up India-Pakistan tensions, he went on to claim that he averted what could have led to a nuclear escalation.
“Take a look at India and Pakistan. They were shooting down airplanes already. And that would have been maybe nuclear. I would have said it was going to go nuclear. And I was able to get it done,” he said.
“Number one is lives. And number two is everything else. Wars are very bad,” he added.
India and Pakistan had engaged in a brief four-day conflict following the Pahalgam terror attack in April 22. In the massacre, 26 innocent civilians were shot dead in cold blood by Pakistan-linked terrorists while vacationing in the scenic Baisaran valley in Pahalgam.
In response, Indian forces had carried out Operation Sindoor on May 7, targeting nine terror camps deep within Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. In the mega military offensive, over 100 terrorists were eliminated. Pakistan responded to the aerial attacks with drones and missiles that were eventually brought down by India’s air defence.
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This continued till May 10, when Pakistan approached the Indian side and requested a ceasefire. However, Trump claimed that the hostilities ended due to his involvement that came with a tariff threat – a claim that India has denied multiple times.
Trump has also claimed he helped end conflicts between Thailand and Cambodia, Iran and Israel, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, Serbia and Kosovo, and Egypt and Ethiopia, saying this justified a Nobel Peace Prize for the President.
The President has brokered about one peace deal or ceasefire per month, on average, in his first six months in office, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said earlier this month, reiterating Trump’s demand for a Nobel.
