Trump: US stopped India-Pakistan 'nuclear conflict', will do 'lot of trade' with them

US President Donald Trump on Monday (May 12) claimed America stopped a "nuclear conflict" between India and Pakistan after tensions escalated over the terror attack in Kashmir’s Pahalgam and India retaliated with ‘Operation Sindoor’ targeting terror sites in Pakistan.

Also read: Indian Army denies targeting Pakistan's nuclear facility at Kirana Hills

Trump also reiterated that his administration "helped broker a full and immediate ceasefire" between India and Pakistan.

"On Saturday, my administration helped broker a full and immediate ceasefire, I think, a permanent one, between India and Pakistan, ending a dangerous conflict of two nations with lots of nuclear weapons. And they were going at it hot and heavy, and it was seemingly not going to stop,” Trump said in his remarks in the White House, describing “the historic events that took place over the last few days.”

Also read: Targeting of civilians marks alarming shift in terror tactics: DGMO

New Delhi said that the Directors General of Military Operations (DGMOs) of India and Pakistan reached an understanding and no third party was involved.

'Could have been a bad nuclear war'

"I'm very proud to let you know that the leadership of India and Pakistan was unwavering, powerful, but unwavering in both cases, having these, they really were from the standpoint of having the strength and the wisdom and fortitude to fully know and to understand the gravity of the situation," he said.

"And we helped a lot, and we helped also with trade. I said, ‘Come on, we're going to do a lot of trade with you guys. Let's stop it. Let's stop it. If you stop it, we're doing trade. If you don't stop it, we're not going to do any trade'," he claimed.

"People have never really used trade the way I used it, that I can tell you, and all of a sudden they said, ‘I think we're going to stop’ and they have, and they did it for a lot of reasons, but trade is a big one. We're going to do a lot of trade with Pakistan. We're going to do a lot of trade with India. We're negotiating with India right now. We're going to be soon, negotiating with Pakistan, and we stopped a nuclear conflict," he claimed.

"I think it could have been a bad nuclear war. Millions of people could have been killed. So I'm very proud of that. I also want to thank Vice President Vance and Secretary of State Rubio for their work and efforts they worked very hard on that,” Trump said.

Trump's offer on Kashmir's 'solution'

Trump went on to say that “we did some great things with trade with India and Pakistan. Really helped the situation. Very heated situation. Could have lost millions of people, more than millions, I mean, many millions of people. And they want to do business with America, but we never used our powers that way. Never knew how. We never had people that knew how to do that.”

On Saturday, Trump announced that India and Pakistan had agreed to a “full and immediate ceasefire" after a “long night of talks mediated by the United States."

Later, in a post on Truth Social, Trump offered to work with India and Pakistan for a “solution" on Kashmir, while crediting Washington for helping the two nations arrive at the “historic and heroic decision” of stopping the conflict.

Trump said that even though this has not been discussed, he is going to “increase trade, substantially, with both of these great Nations.”

India has always maintained that the Kashmir issue is a bilateral matter and there is no space for any third party. India asserts that the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir and the Union Territory of Ladakh are and always will be integral and inalienable parts of it.

(With agency inputs)