United States President Donald Trump has stated that he and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had a phone call where they talked about having “no wars with Pakistan”.
The US president has repeatedly claimed credit for ending the conflict between Pakistan and India earlier this year in May. India has denied the claim that the US president was responsible for brokering the ceasefire via trade threats. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has praised Trump for his “leadership and proactive role” in helping the two neighbours achieve peace in the region.
Participating in a Diwali celebration at the White House on Tuesday, Trump said he had a “great conversation” with Indian PM Modi over the phone.
“We talked about trade – we talked about a lot of things, but mostly the world of trade, he’s very interested in that. Although we did talk a little while ago about let’s have no wars with Pakistan,” he said.
“I think the fact that trade was involved, I was able to talk about that – and we have no war with Pakistan and India and that was a very, very good thing,” he said.
The US president also stated that Modi was keen to see the end of the Russia-Ukraine war.
“We just have a very good relationship,” he said while talking about Modi. “And he’s not gonna buy much oil from Russia; he wants to see that war end as much as I do – he wants to see the war end between Russia and Ukraine … so they’ve cut it way back and they’re continuing to cut it way back.”
Trump also lauded the US’ success in “forging peace all over the world”.
“We’re putting America first; we’re getting everybody to sort of get along,” he said, highlighting the US role in securing “total peace” in the Middle East.
“Nobody thought we’d ever see that happening,” he said. “We have levels of friendship with everybody … countries that hated each other now love each other,” he said.