President Donald Trump on Monday said he used the lure of trade with the US to persuade India and Pakistan to end hostilities last week, which, he added, could have potentially spiraled into a nuclear war.
The US President also commended the leaderships of India and Pakistan for "wisdom" and "fortitude" to understand the gravity of the situation and end the fighting.
Trump on Saturday announced a ceasefire in the India-Pakistan military conflict following the April 22 attack by a Pakistan-linked terrorist outfit in which 26 tourists were killed in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam.
"Come on, we're going to do a lot of trade with you guys," President Trump said at a news conference in the White House before departing for Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar in West Asia.
"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. 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," he went on to say
No details were available or how the offer of trade was extended by the Trump administration in this context. India and the US have been discussing a bilateral trade agreement and both sides have expressed optimism about an early deal, unlike in 2019 — in President Trump’s first term — when talks had fallen through.
"We stopped (a) nuclear conflict," President Trump went on to say. Although there is no evidence or indication the two countries were about to use nuclear weapons. "I think it could have been a bad nuclear war. Millions of people could have been killed. So I'm very proud of that."
Earlier at the briefing, the US President said, "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."
"I'm very proud to let you know that the leadership of India and Pakistan was unwavering, powerful, but unwavering in both cases," he went on to say. But, he added, they also had "the strength and the wisdom and fortitude to fully know and to understand the gravity of the situation".
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