‘We stopped the nuclear war’: Donald Trump repeats India Pakistan ceasefire claim, calls Asim Munir ‘very impressive’

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday repeated the claim that he brokered the peace between India and Pakistan and made a ceasefire possible between the two countries last month, preventing a nuclear war. He told reporters that he had informed the leaders of India and Pakistan that he would halt trade if they did not compromise, despite India refuting these claims multiple times. 

He even went ahead and called Pakistan’s Field Marshal Asim Munir “very impressive”.  

“May be the most important of them all (wars) was India and Pakistan. I ended that with a series of phone calls and said that if you fight each other, we are not doing any trade deal. The General (Asim Munir of Pakistan) was very impressive. Prime Minister Modi is a great friend of mine, he is a great gentleman, and I got them to reason. They said we want a trade deal. So we stopped a nuclear war,” Trump told reporters at a Nato Summit in The Hague in the Netherlands. 

His latest claim comes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi told Trump during a phone call that the US had no role in brokering the truce between India and Pakistan last month. PM Modi also said that there was no discussion on a US-India trade deal during the hostilities.

“PM Modi clearly told President Trump that during the entire course of events, at no point, and at no level, was there any discussion about a US-India trade deal or about US mediation between India and Pakistan,” Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said on the conversation. 

Briefing Trump on Operation Sindoor, PM Modi emphasised that India’s actions were “measured, precise, and non-escalatory”. He also revealed that on May 9 night, US Vice President JD Vance informed India of a potential large-scale attack by Pakistan. 

Modi told Trump that India made it clear that it would respond with even greater force if provoked. He also reiterated India’s long-standing position on third-party mediation on the Kashmir issue. 

“India has never accepted, does not accept, and will never accept mediation on the Kashmir issue,” Modi told Trump, adding that there was complete political consensus in India on this matter. 

He added that PM Modi said the talks of cessation of military action were held directly between India and Pakistan at the DGMO level, adding that the talks were held at Pakistan’s request. Modi had also declined Trump’s invitation for a visit to Washington, DC, on his way back from the G7 Summit in Canada. 

India and Pakistan found themselves in the most severe military conflict in decades after New Delhi executed Operation Sindoor, targeting Pakistani terror infrastructure on May 7 as a response to the Pahalgam terror attack that resulted in the deaths of 26 civilians on April 22.

During the night of May 9-10, Pakistan initiated a series of drone and missile strikes, prompting India to retaliate by causing considerable damage to Pakistani military forces, making several of their airbases non-operational.

A ceasefire agreement was reached between the two nations on May 10, which Trump announced, claiming he facilitated it. However, India disputed this assertion, stating that the Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) from Pakistan contacted his Indian counterpart to request a cessation of hostilities.