Riyadh/New Delhi: US President Donald Trump today reiterated that his administration brokered a “historic ceasefire” between India and Pakistan, and used trade to a large extent to achieve it.
Addressing a conference after talks with Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman in Riyadh, Trump also said that had his administration not stepped in then India and Pakistan would have been "trading nuclear missiles" instead.
“Just days ago my administration successfully, we brokered a historic ceasefire to stop the escalating violence between India and Pakistan; and I used trade to a large extent to do it,” to loud applause from the audience including the Saudi Crown Prince.
“I said ‘fellows, come on, let’s make a deal.
“Let’s do some trading, let’s not trade nuclear missiles, let’s trade the things you make so beautifully.
And they both have very powerful leaders, very strong leaders, good leaders, smart leaders.
“And it all stopped, hopefully, it’ll remain that way,” the US President said.
“And it all stopped, I am proud of (US Secretary of State) Marco Rubio and all of the people that worked so hard,” he said, and also thanked VP JD Vance.
The US President also proposed that the leaders of India and Pakistan could be brought to share “a nice dinner together”.
“Actually, getting along, maybe we can even get them together a little bit, Marco, with a nice dinner together, wouldn’t that be nice?”, he said to smiles around, including from the US Secretary of State.
“But we’ve come a long way. And millions of people could have died from that conflict, that started off small, and was getting big, and bigger and bigger by the day.”
India has said that trade was never discussed during the discussions with the US over lowering the tensions with Pakistan.
