US President Donald Trump once again asserted that his diplomatic efforts played a crucial role in preventing India and Pakistan from entering into an all-out conflict earlier this year. Speaking about the episode, Trump claimed that his administration’s strategic use of tariffs was instrumental in easing tensions between the two nuclear-armed nations.
He remarked that economic leverage had become one of his strongest tools in maintaining peace across regions. “If I didn’t have the power of tariffs, you would have at least four of the seven wars raging right now. If you look at India and Pakistan, they were ready to go at it. Seven planes were shot down,” Trump said, suggesting that his tariff policy helped avert potential wars.
Trump went on to add that his tariff strategy not only strengthened the US economy but also helped preserve global peace.
Speaking from the White House, he remarked, “I don’t want to say exactly what I said, but what I said was very effective. Not only did we make hundreds of billions of dollars, but we’re a peacekeeper because of tariffs,” again linking his economic policies to the India–Pakistan ceasefire earlier this year.
The two neighbouring nations had witnessed heightened tensions in May after India launched Operation Sindoor to eliminate terror camps inside Pakistan, following the killing of 26 civilians in the Pahalgam terror attack. The confrontation ended on May 10, when both sides agreed to a ceasefire—something India maintains was a bilateral decision, despite Trump’s repeated claims of having mediated.
A week earlier, Trump had stated that he directly called the leaders of India and Pakistan and warned them to end hostilities or risk losing trade ties with the US. “India and Pakistan were going at it. I called them both… They had just shot down seven planes… I said, if you do this, there’s not going to be any trade, and I stopped the war. It was raging for four days,” he said.
Trump also mentioned that Pakistan’s Army Chief General Asim Munir had commended his involvement in preventing the conflict from escalating. Recalling his meeting with Munir and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Trump said, “He (Munir) told a group of people that this man (Trump) saved millions of lives because he stopped the war from continuing. That war was going to get very bad. I loved the way he said it.”
