US President Donald Trump on Thursday (local time) repeated his claim on brokering a ceasefire between India and Pakistan during Operation Sindoor, saying at least 6-7 planes were knocked out, without specifying which side suffered losses.
“I have solved six wars in the last six months. I am very proud of that," he said in the Oval Office. “If you look at Pakistan and India, planes were being knocked out of the air, six or seven planes came down. They were ready to go nuclear, we solved that."
Trump has repeatedly claimed credit for stopping hostilities between India and Pakistan after New Delhi’s effective response to Islamabad’s aggression following Operation Sindoor, where Indian Armed Forces carried out precise strikes on terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) after a deadly terror attack in Pahalgam.
However, India has repeatedly denied any external intervention after Operation Sindoor, in which Indian forces targeted nine terror camps located in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in response to the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during a recent address in the Lok Sabha, made it clear that no third party asked India to stop its actions against Pakistan, and stressed that the Pakistan DGMO asked for a ceasefire. Modi said India decided to pause the conflict after achieving 100% of its goals.
Tensions between India and the US rose after Trump imposed 50% tariffs on all Indian imports for purchasing Russian oil, while Washington has taken a seemingly friendlier tone with Pakistan, which has credited the US president for stopping the conflict and has even nominated him for a Noble Peace Prize.
Meanwhile, Trump is cautiously optimistic about a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine as he meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday. However, he said he was unsure whether an immediate ceasefire can be achieved, but expressed interest in brokering a peace agreement.
“We have a meeting with President Putin tomorrow. I think it’s going to be a good meeting, and I think President Putin will make peace. I think (Ukrainian) President (Volodymyr) Zelenskyy will make peace. We’ll see if they can get along. And if they can, it will be great," he said.
“We tend to find out whether or not we’re going to have a good meeting or a bad meeting. And if it’s a bad meeting, it’ll end very quickly. And if it’s a good meeting, we’ll go on to end up getting peace in the pretty near future."
