If I weren’t around, India would be fighting Pakistan, says Trump; not so, says Jaishankar

US President Donald Trump on Monday claimed, yet again, that if he had not intervened in time with a threat of stopping all trade negotiations, India and Pakistan would have been at war.

Addressing the media in Scotland, along with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer ahead of their official talks, Trump took credit for stepping in to prevent “six major wars” around the world, including between India and Pakistan.

He was responding to a question about pushing Israel towards ending the conflict in Gaza just hours after ceasefire talks with Hamas collapsed.

“We have many ceasefires going on… If I weren’t around, you would have six major wars going on — India would be fighting with Pakistan,” Trump said while addressing the media from his Turnberry golf resort in South Ayrshire, Scotland.

“We have many hotspots that were at war. I think a very big one was India and Pakistan because you are talking about two nuclear nations. That was a very big one,” said Trump, who is on a private visit to Scotland since Friday.

Trump said, “I know the leaders of Pakistan and India. I know (them) very well. And they're in the midst of a trade deal, and yet they're talking about nuclear weapons… this is crazy. So, I said I'm not doing a trade deal with you guys. And they want the trade deal, they need it.

"[I said] 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. We'll all get nuclear dust.

“When they start using nuclear weapons, that stuff blows all over the place and really bad things happen. So maybe we're being a little selfish when we want to save wars too. But we stopped a lot of wars and it's a great honour to have done it.”

Meanwhile, external affairs minister S. Jaishankar on Monday asserted that at no stage in any conversation with the US was there any linkage of trade with Operation Sindoor and the request for halting the military action came from the Pakistani side through the DGMO (director-general military operations) channel.

Jaishankar also said the result of India's diplomacy post-Pahalgam attack was that only three out of 190 nations which are part of the UN opposed Operation Sindoor. There was an overwhelming support that the country which has been attacked has the right to defend itself, he said.

Intervening in a special discussion in the Lok Sabha on 'India's strong, successful and decisive Operation Sindoor in response to the terror attack in Pahalgam', Jaishankar said it was important to send a clear, strong and resolute message after the Pahalgam attack as "our red lines had been crossed and we had to make it very apparent that there would be serious consequences".

Hailing the government's diplomatic efforts post-Pahalgam attack, the EAM said, "What we tried to create was a narrative and prepare the diplomacy for launch of Operation Sindoor. The result of that diplomacy was that out of the 190 nations of UN only three, besides Pakistan, opposed Operation Sindoor.

"On 10 May, we received phone calls sharing the impression of other countries that Pakistan was ready to cease the fighting. Our position was that if Pakistan was ready, we needed to get this as a request from the Pakistani side through the DGMO channel. That is exactly how that request came," Jaishankar said.

"I want to make two things very clear — at no stage in any conversation with the US was there any linkage with trade and what was going on. Second, there was no call between the prime minister and President Trump from 22 April — when President Trump called up to convey his sympathy — till 17 June when he called up the PM who was in Canada," he said.