Trump refers to trade with India and Pak, officials say didn’t figure in talks

“People have never really used trade the way I used it, that I can tell you. And all of a sudden they (India and Pakistan) said, ‘I think we’re going to stop’.” “And they have, and they did it for a lot of reasons, but trade is a big one. We’re going to do a lot of trade with Pakistan. We’re going to do a lot of trade with India. We’re negotiating with India right now. We’re going to be soon negotiating with Pakistan, and we stopped a nuclear conflict,” Trump said.

Rebutting the claim, sources in the Indian government categorically said, “After Operation Sindoor commenced, US Vice President J D Vance spoke to PM Narendra Modi on May 9. Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on May 8 and 10, and to NSA Ajit Doval on May 10. There was no reference to trade in any of these discussions.”

This is similar to how Trump had claimed in July 2019 that PM Modi had asked him to mediate on Jammu and Kashmir. India had rebutted that claim, saying no such request was made by PM Modi. Trump later walked back on the mediation claim and said that the US was ready to mediate if both India and Pakistan want it.

Speaking at a press conference in the White House on Monday, Trump said, “On Saturday, my administration helped broker a full and immediate ceasefire, I think, a permanent one between India and Pakistan, ending a dangerous conflict of two nations with lots of nuclear weapons.”

He started the briefing by describing “the historic events that took place over the last few days” in the Indian subcontinent. Trump said India and Pakistan “were going at it hot and heavy, and it was seemingly not going to stop.” “I’m very proud to let you know that the leadership of India and Pakistan was unwavering, powerful, but unwavering in both cases, having these they really were from the standpoint of having the strength and the wisdom and fortitude to fully know and to understand the gravity of the situation,” Trump said.

“I think it … could have been a bad nuclear war. Millions of people could have been killed. So I’m very proud of that. I also want to thank Vice President (J D) Vance and Secretary of State (Marco) Rubio for their work and efforts, they worked very hard on that,” Trump said.

Trump went on to say “we did some great things with trade with India and Pakistan. Really helped the situation. Very heated situation. Could have lost millions of people, more than millions, I mean, many millions of people. And they want to do business with America, but we never used our powers that way. Never knew how. We never had people that knew how to do that.”

On Saturday, Trump announced that India and Pakistan had agreed to a “full and immediate ceasefire” after a “long night of talks mediated by” the US. Later, in a post on Truth Social, he offered to work with India and Pakistan for a “solution” on Kashmir, while crediting Washington for helping the two nations arrive at the “historic and heroic decision” of stopping the conflict.

Trump went on to say that even though this has not been discussed, he is going to “increase trade, substantially, with both of these great Nations”. India has always maintained that the Kashmir issue is a bilateral matter and there is no scope for any third party involvement, as per the 1972 Simla agreement.

(With PTI inputs from Washington/New York)