Hours after India’s Ministry of Exterior Affairs dismissed claims by US President Donald J Trump {that a} ceasefire between India and Pakistan was brokered with American involvement and hinged on commerce negotiations, Trump on Tuesday doubled down on his assertions — together with a dire warning that the world narrowly averted “a nasty nuclear struggle.”
Talking on the US-Saudi Arabia Funding Discussion board, Trump insisted, “Simply days in the past, my administration efficiently brokered a historic ceasefire to cease the escalating violence between India and Pakistan. And I used commerce to a big extent to do it. I stated, fellas, come on, let’s make a deal. Let’s do some buying and selling. Let’s not commerce nuclear missiles. Let’s commerce the issues that you simply make so superbly.”
“Tens of millions of individuals may have died from that battle that began small and was getting larger and larger and larger by the day,” he stated, including that the US had additionally been working relentlessly to “finish the horrible bloodshed” between Russia and Ukraine.
Trump on India-Pakistan: “Possibly we may even get them collectively a little bit bit, Marco, the place they exit and have a pleasant dinner collectively. Wouldn’t that be good?” pic.twitter.com/PX8E4O9y2z
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 13, 2025
He additionally praised the US lawmakers concerned within the diplomatic effort. “I used to be very pleased with Marco Rubio ( United States secretary of state) and the entire those that labored so arduous. Marco, arise. What an ideal job you probably did on that… JD Vance (US vice chairman), Marco, the entire group labored with you.”
The remarks adopted a Could 10 publish on Reality Social, by which Trump claimed that his administration had mediated an “quick and full ceasefire” between the 2 South Asian neighbours after a surge in tensions after India launched Operation Sindoor — a cross-border strike on terror targets inside Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) — in response to a terror assault in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam, which claimed 26 civilian lives.
On Monday, Trump instructed reporters: “I stated [to the Indian and Pakistani leaderships], let’s cease it. For those who cease it, we’re doing commerce. For those who don’t cease it, we’re not going to do any commerce.”
“I believe it may have been a nasty nuclear struggle. Tens of millions of individuals may have been killed,” he had stated.
India pushes again
India wasted little time pushing again on Trump’s assertions. At a media briefing in New Delhi, Exterior Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal reiterated India’s longstanding place that Jammu and Kashmir is a bilateral difficulty to be resolved between India and Pakistan alone.
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“We’ve a long-standing nationwide place that any points pertaining to the Indian Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir need to be addressed by India and Pakistan bilaterally. That said coverage has not modified,” Jaiswal stated.
He additionally disputed the function of commerce in discussions between Indian and American leaders. “The problem of commerce didn’t come up in any of those discussions,” he stated. “Operation Sindoor was fully within the typical area,” he added, rejecting Trump’s nuclear state of affairs as speculative. “As you already know, India has a agency stance that it’s going to not give in to nuclear blackmail or permit cross-border terrorism to be performed invoking it.”
Jaiswal clarified that Operation Sindoor was aimed solely at “terrorist infrastructure working out of Pakistan,” and that India had pre-briefed international companions accordingly. “If the Pakistani army stayed out, there could be no downside,” he stated, including that a number of overseas governments had been knowledgeable that India’s actions would stay restricted and proportionate.