US President Donald Trump has once again claimed credit for preventing an Indo-Pak war, saying that his threat of trade tariffs convinced both countries to step back from the brink of conflict.
Addressing the business community in Japan, Trump said he expected his upcoming meeting with the Chinese president to be very good.
He further claimed, for the second time during the ongoing trip, that he stopped the India-Pakistan war through trade diplomacy.
"Seven brand new, beautiful planes were shot down," Trump said about the losses in the May stand-off between India and Pakistan without mentioning which country he was referring to. He added that Pakistan's field marshal -- army chief Asim Munir -- was a very good person.
He further said, “I said to Prime Minister Modi and I said to the prime minister -- very nice man, very good man -- and the field marshal of Pakistan that we're not going to do any trade if you're going to be fighting — and within 24 hours, the issue was resolved.”
Trump added that both countries are major nuclear powers, and if a war had broken out, “the entire world could have been affected.”
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Earlier, speaking to US troops in Japan, Trump said India had been preparing to fight Pakistan, but he intervened through economic pressure rather than military means. “India wanted to fight Pakistan,” Trump said. “I told them, if you fight, we will not trade. We will impose massive tariffs on both countries. They said okay, we will not fight.”
According to Trump, his use of tariffs helped establish a ceasefire between the two nuclear powers, which he called one of his administration’s biggest diplomatic achievements.
'No one understands tariffs like I do,' says Trump
In his address, Trump emphasized his belief in tariffs as a powerful tool of foreign policy and national security. “No one understands tariffs the way I do,” he said. “With their help, we stopped wars all over the world. Without tariffs, our national security would not be what it is today.”
He claimed that during his presidency, he used trade pressure to avert eight wars in eight months, citing examples such as Iran and Israel, Egypt and Ethiopia, and the long-running conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia. “We ended the 30-year-old conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia only through talks,” Trump added.
The US president also referenced other global interventions he credited to his administration’s diplomacy and trade leverage. “We stopped the wars between Pakistan and India, Iran and Israel, Egypt and Ethiopia,” Trump said. “Everyone said the Gaza war was impossible to stop -- but we did.”
Trump highlighted that his administration used economic agreements and tariff threats as instruments of peacebuilding, calling them “the most effective and peaceful means of achieving national security.”
Mentions of Japan and new appointments
During the same address, Trump invited Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi on stage, noting that “the stock markets reached their highest level since our meeting.” He also announced that Pete Hegseth had left his “multi-million dollar job to become war secretary,” crediting him with stopping drug trafficking within the United States.
Trump ended his speech by asserting that no previous US president had achieved as many peace deals or avoided as many wars through negotiation. “All past presidents started wars,” he said. “We ended them.”
