- By Supratik Das
- Tue, 07 Oct 2025 07:28 AM (IST)
- Source:JND
US President Donald Trump has once again claimed credit for averting a potential war between India and Pakistan earlier this year, this time linking the truce to his trade and tariff policies. Speaking from the Oval Office on Monday, Trump said that the “power of tariffs” helped the United States prevent multiple global conflicts, including one between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.
“If I didn’t have the power of tariffs, you would have at least four of the seven wars raging,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “If you look at India and Pakistan, they were ready to go at it. Seven planes were shot down. I don’t want to say exactly what I said, but it was very effective. We made hundreds of billions of dollars, and we’re peacekeepers because of tariffs.”
Trump claimed his warning to both New Delhi and Islamabad during the May border conflict pushed the two sides to announce a ceasefire. “India and Pakistan were going at it. I called them both. I said, if you do this, there’s not going to be any trade. And I stopped the war. It was raging for four days,” he said.
#WATCH | On whether he would shift his position on tariffs, US President Donald J Trump says, "... If I didn't have the power of tariffs, you would have at least four of the seven wars raging... If you look at India and Pakistan, they were ready to go at it. Seven planes were… pic.twitter.com/oI3r4cnzAV
— ANI (@ANI) October 6, 2025
The President also alleged that Pakistan’s military leadership acknowledged his role in halting the escalation. “General Asim Munir told a group of people that I saved millions of lives because I stopped the war from going on,” Trump said, referring to his recent meeting with the Pakistani Army chief and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. “That war was going to get very bad. I loved the way he said it.”
Trump's Repeated ‘Nobel Prize’ Remark
President Donald Trump has consistently asserted since May that his government brokered a ceasefire after India's Operation Sindoor, a counter-terror military operation in response to the April 22 Pahalgam attack that claimed the lives of 26 individuals. He also stated that he should be honoured with the Nobel Prize for "ending seven wars."
Trump has also listed other conflicts he claimed to have influenced, including those in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kosovo and Serbia, Israel and Iran, Egypt and Ethiopia, Rwanda and the Congo. "Just look at that. India, Pakistan, Thailand, Cambodia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kosovo and Serbia, Israel and Iran, Egypt and Ethiopia, Rwanda and the Congo. We stopped all of them. And 60 per cent of them were stopped because of trade," he said.
Though the ceasefire, declared on May 10 after India’s Operation Sindoor targeted terror camps across the border, was officially described by New Delhi as a bilateral decision. Indian officials have consistently dismissed any suggestion of foreign mediation, maintaining that peace talks and military actions are conducted directly between the two nations.
‘Disappointed In Putin’: Trump
Turning to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Trump expressed disappointment in Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying, “He has let me down. He’s killing many people and losing more soldiers than he’s killing.” Trump added that the war “would never have happened” if he had remained in the White House.
The controversy comes at a time of heightened strain in India-US relations. As both sides trade contrasting narratives, the episode underscores the broader geopolitical shifts in South Asia, where New Delhi remains cautious of Washington’s balancing act between India and Pakistan.