Source The Hindu
New Delhi / Washington — In a bold and repeated assertion, U.S. President Donald J. Trump has once again claimed that he personally ended the brief conflict between India and Pakistan earlier this year. Speaking at a rally in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, Trump said: “Pakistan and India — they were going at it. I ended the war.”
According to the President, what turned the tide was not military intervention but economic leverage — specifically, the threat of heavy U.S. tariffs. Trump told supporters that he warned both nations: either stop fighting or face “massive tariffs,” and said that within 24 hours the conflict subsided.
Trump also placed the India-Pakistan conflict among a longer list of global flare-ups he said he had resolved — a claim he has made repeatedly over the past months. “In 10 months, I ended eight wars,” he declared, naming other conflict zones like Kosovo-Serbia and multiple Middle Eastern and African flashpoints.
But officials in India — including senior military and diplomatic sources — have flatly rejected Trump’s version of events. According to them, the de-escalation in May was achieved through direct negotiations between the two countries’ military leadership, without any third-party involvement or outside economic pressure.
Analysts and fact-checkers have also expressed skepticism about the repeated claims that a U.S. tariff threat alone brought about the ceasefire. While Trump continues to highlight his “peace-through-trade” approach, many experts say that the conflict dynamics and diplomatic back-channels within South Asia are far more complex than presented.
For now, Trump’s assertion that he “ended the war” between India and Pakistan remains a matter of contention — widely promoted by the U.S. President, but denied by key stakeholders in the region.
