US President Donald Trump on Wednesday repeated his claim that he helped stop the India-Pakistan conflict, saying the confrontation could have turned “nuclear”, 11 aircraft were shot down, and millions of people could have lost their lives. He added that he deserved the Nobel Peace Prize.
Notably, Trump has repeatedly said that he prevented a full-scale conflict between the two nuclear-armed neighbours by warning both countries of steep tariffs, a claim that India has rejected.
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Trump on India-Pakistan ceasefire
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One at Royal Air Force Mildenhall in the United Kingdom, Trump said, “Think of it, India and Pakistan. That war was raging. They were a week into it. Eleven planes were shot down, and that war was going to go nuclear.”
He said that Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had praised him for what he described as his role in “stopping the war”.
“The Prime Minister of Pakistan said President Trump saved 30 to 50 million lives. Well, guess what? Could have been a lot more than that,” he said.
During the interaction, he spoke about what he described as his role in resolving conflicts around the world, claiming he had helped end several wars.
“I settled eight wars,” Trump said, referring to disputes including those between Azerbaijan and Armenia, as well as the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda.
Trump made the comments while answering a question about Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado. He denied telling Machado not to return to Venezuela and described her as “a wonderful person.”
Speaking about the Nobel Peace Prize, Trump said Machado had publicly argued that he deserved the honour more than anyone else due to his efforts to resolve international conflicts.
“I should have won that award more than anybody who ever received the Nobel Peace Prize because nobody settled wars. I settled eight of them because of a certain type of personality. I was able to settle,” Trump said.
Repeating his claim that India and Pakistan were close to a much larger conflict, he said, “I said, if you keep fighting, I’m going to put a 200 per cent tariff on your country. Said the same thing to the other. I did it with India and with Pakistan.”
India rejected Trump’s claims earlier
The tensions between India and Pakistan followed the April 2025 terror attack in Pahalgam, in which 26 people were killed. In response, India carried out precision strikes on terrorist infrastructure across Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK) under Operation Sindoor.
Despite Trump’s repeated claims that he played a role in easing tensions, New Delhi has consistently denied any suggestion of US mediation.
India has maintained that the ceasefire was reached solely through direct talks between the directors general of military operations of the two countries. It also reiterated its long-standing position that all outstanding issues with Pakistan must be resolved bilaterally, without any third-party involvement.
With inputs from agencies
