Washington: With his much-hyped Alaska summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin ending without a Ukraine breakthrough, US President Donald Trump has once again turned to the India-Pakistan conflict to showcase his peacemaking credentials.
In a Fox News interview with Sean Hannity, Trump claimed that his intervention earlier this year prevented a possible nuclear flare-up between New Delhi and Islamabad. “They were already shooting down planes. That was heading nuclear. And I was able to get it done,” Trump said, positioning himself as the decisive factor in halting the four-day confrontation.
India, however, maintains a sharply different account. New Delhi insists that the May fighting concluded only after Pakistan itself sought a ceasefire, following heavy losses inflicted by the Indian military during Operation Sindoor on May 7. The cross-border strikes destroyed nine terror camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, eliminating over 100 militants, officials said.
The flare-up had been triggered by the brutal Pahalgam terror attack in April, when 26 civilians were massacred by Pakistan-backed militants in the Baisaran valley. Islamabad retaliated to India’s military strikes with drones and missiles, but these were intercepted by India’s air defence. By May 10, it was Pakistan, not Trump, that approached India for a ceasefire, according to Indian officials.
Pakistan, however, has echoed Trump’s claim, giving him credit in an apparent bid to curry favour with Washington. Trump himself sought to frame his role as part of a broader mission: “Number one, to save lives. Wars are very bad. And number two is everything else,” he said.
The US President also lumped India and Pakistan into a wider list of conflicts where he claims to have intervened ranging from Thailand-Cambodia to Iran-Israel, Rwanda-DRC, Serbia-Kosovo, and Egypt-Ethiopia. His aides argue that the sheer frequency of such efforts “one peace deal or ceasefire per month” in his first six months makes him worthy of a Nobel Peace Prize.
For India, though, Trump’s narrative is little more than political theatre. Officials in New Delhi continue to stress that the Pahalgam conflict ended on their terms, not Washington’s.