India attends Trump’s Gaza board meeting as observer
India is one of the dozen countries opting to participate as observers without joining the board. Others include Germany, Italy, Norway, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
World leaders and founding members of the Board of Peace gather for the inaugural meeting at the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace. (X/@WhiteHouse) As US President Donald Trump Thursday convened a meeting of his Board of Peace focusing on reconstruction of Gaza and mobilising an international stabilisation force, India joined as an observer, represented by Namgya C Khampa, Deputy Chief of Mission in Washington DC.
Sources said a call was taken to be part of the board meeting as an observer to the process that Trump calls the Gaza peace plan.
India is one of the dozen countries opting to participate as observers without joining the board. Others include Germany, Italy, Norway, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
More than 40 countries and the European Union confirmed they were sending officials to the meeting Thursday. Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif attended the event along with leaders of other countries which have joined the board.
Reiterating his claim that he stopped the war between India and Pakistan last year, Trump said he threatened them with 200 per cent tariffs if they did not stop fighting. India has denied Trump’s role in brokering the ceasefire, and maintained that the two sides halted their military actions following direct talks between their DGMOs.
World leaders and founding members of the Board of Peace gather for the inaugural meeting at the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace. pic.twitter.com/F8f67yrlZZ
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) February 19, 2026
Listing the conflicts he helped end, Trump asked leaders to stand up as he mentioned the countries. He asked Sharif to stand up and said, “I spoke to Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi. He’s excited. He’s watching us right now. Pakistan and India. That was a big one. I think you should actually stand, come please stand just for a second. Pakistan and India. Thank you very much.”
He said he likes Sharif and Pakistan’s Field Marshal Asim Munir who he called a “great guy”. He said Sharif had said he saved “25 million lives” when he stopped the war. “You made that statement,” he told Sharif. “I said 25 million lives, could have been much more actually, but it was really a beautiful thing… That war was raging. Planes were being shot down, and it was Pakistan and India.”
“And I called them, I said, ‘Listen, I’m not doing trade deals with you two guys, if you don’t settle this up’. They said, ‘No, no, no’,” he said, adding that neither of the two countries wanted to do that.
“I said, ‘No, it has to. If you don’t do it, I’m not doing a trade deal. We’re not doing a trade deal’… And all of a sudden, I read where there was a little bit of a pullback by one, then the other, and all of a sudden, we worked out a deal. But I said, ‘If you fight, I’m going to put 200% tariffs on each of your countries’.”
“One of them, I won’t say which one, said, ‘No, can’t do that’. They both wanted to fight. But when it came to money, nothing like money. When it came to losing a lot of money, they said, ‘I guess we don’t want to fight’. And we solved that deal in two-three days… They were fighting, 11 jets were shot down, very expensive jets, and they were all in. Both of them were all in, and now they’re not,” Trump said. He did not specify which country’s jets he was referring to.
“And I think we’ll always be able to settle up with them. I really do. I think a lot of progress was made, even in the relationship. And Prime Minister Modi also is a great man. He’s a great guy. They’re all great, but I was very proud of it,” he said.
– With agencies
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