India, Pakistan would still be at war if not for his intervention, Trump repeats ceasefire claim

India and Pakistan would still be warring with each other, if not for his intervention, U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday. The U.S. President made the remarks before beginning talks with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer at Trump Turnberry golf course in Scotland. The President repeated his claim that he used trade as leverage to get New Delhi and Islamabad to stop fighting in early May this year, after terrorists opened fire and killed 26 civilians in Pahalgam. New Delhi has consistently denied Mr. Trump’s claims that he was instrumental in bringing about the May 10 ceasefire between the two countries.

“If I weren’t around, you’d have, right now, six major wars going on. India would be fighting with Pakistan,” Mr. Trump said, standing between Mr. Starmer and his wife, Victoria Starmer, whom the President was hosting at Turnberry, where he is on a private visit.

“You see what we just did yesterday with two nations that we’re trading with,” said Mr. Trump, referring to Cambodia and Thailand, with whom he said there would be no trade talks unless they agreed to a ceasefire. Both nations have been engaged in border clashes since last Thursday.

During his remarks, Mr. Trump also referred to the wars between Serbia and Kosovo, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

“I think a very big one was India and Pakistan, because that’s you’re talking about two nuclear nations. That was a very big one,” he said.

“And I use…not in all cases….but I use a combination of knowing them a little bit, or in some cases, knowing them a lot,” Mr. Trump said, specifically pointing out that he knew the leaders of India and Pakistan very well.

“I know them very well, and you know they’re in the midst of a trade deal [i.e., trade discussions with Washington], and yet they’re talking about nuclear weapons,” he said.

“So I said, I’m not doing a trade deal with you guys. And they want the trade deal. They need it. I’m not doing a trade deal with you. If you’re going to have war, and that’s a war that spreads to other countries, you’ll get nuclear dust,” Mr. Trump said, adding that nuclear dust spreads widely and that leads to bad consequences.

“So maybe we’re being a little selfish when we want to save wars too, but we we stopped a lot of wars, and it’s a great honour to have done it,” he said.

The President also said that he and Mr. Starmer would be discussing the humanitarian situation in Gaza during their meeting. The U.K. has said it would work with Jordon to drop aid into Gaza, calling it a ”desperate situation”. Along with the leaders of France and Germany, Mr. Starmer urged Israel to end all restrictions on aid access for Gaza.

During his remarks ahead of their meeting at Turnberry, Mr. Trump said that he had predicted the militant group Hamas would not release the last few hostages. Mr. Trump said he had told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Israel is “going to have to now maybe do it in a different way”. ‘

Trump threatens to reduce ceasefire deadline for Russia

On the possibility of a ceasefire to the Russia-Ukraine war, Mr. Trump said he thought it had been “settled numerous times”.

“And then President Putin goes out and starts launching rockets into some city, like Kyiv, and kills a lot of people in a nursing home or whatever. You have bodies lying all over the street,“ he said, expressing his disappointed with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“I’m very disappointed. I’m disappointed in President Putin, very disappointed in him. So we’re going to have to look and I’m going to reduce that 50 days that I gave him to a lesser number, because I think I already know the answer what’s going to happen,” he said.

Mr. Trump said on July 14 that he would impose 100% secondary tariffs on Russia if Mr. Putin did not agree to a ceasefire with Ukraine within 50 days. Secondary tariffs would apply to countries that did trade with Russia and would, if they went into force, impact India.

Following his Turnberry visit, Mr. Trump is expected to fly to Aberdeenshire to inaugurate another family business — the Trump International Scotland golf course. Over the weekend, Mr. Trump also met with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and they agreed to the outlines of a E.U.-U.S. trade deal. Mr. Trump has roots in Scotland; his mother, Mary Anne MacLeod was born in Scotland.

Published – July 28, 2025 07:06 pm IST