‘No deals if you fight’: Trump on how he ended India-Pakistan war in 24 hours

Tokyo, Japan: US President Donald Trump arrived at Haneda Airport in Tokyo on Monday following his visit to the ASEAN summit in Malaysia, before boarding Marine One for his engagements in Japan.

During a reception and dinner with business leaders in Tokyo on Tuesday, Trump made a striking claim about the recent India-Pakistan conflict, saying that “seven brand new planes were shot down” during the confrontation — without specifying which country the aircraft belonged to.

“Seven planes were shot down — seven brand new, beautiful planes — and they were going at it... two big nuclear powers,” Trump said.

The US President reiterated that he had leveraged trade negotiations to help end the conflict between India and Pakistan.

“I said to Prime Minister Modi, and I said to the prime minister — a very nice man, a very good man — and the Field Marshal over in Pakistan, ‘Look, we’re not doing any trade if you’re going to be fighting,’” Trump said.

According to Trump, both countries initially dismissed the idea that their war had any link to trade with the United States.

“They said one thing has nothing to do with the other,” Trump continued. “And I said, it has a lot to do with the other two nuclear powers — we get that nuclear dust all over the place.

All of you are affected, right? So we said, no deals if you’re going to fight. And within about 24 hours, that was the end of that. It was amazing, actually.”

Trump has repeatedly claimed that he played a central role in brokering peace between India and Pakistan, ever since announcing on May 10 that the two sides had agreed to a “full and immediate” ceasefire after a “long night” of negotiations mediated by Washington.

India, however, has rejected this version of events, maintaining that the understanding to cease hostilities was reached through direct talks between the Directors General of Military Operations (DGMOs) of both nations.

The conflict began after India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7, targeting terror infrastructure across Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) in retaliation for the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack, which killed 26 civilians.

Following four days of intense cross-border drone and missile strikes, India and Pakistan reached an understanding on May 10 to halt the fighting.