
US President Donald Trump on Thursday (May 15) made a U-turn on mediating the India-Pakistan ceasefire as he claimed a few days back. India, however, rejected the claims made by Trump, saying that the talks were held between the two nations' Director Generals of Military Operations.
During his visit to Qatar, Trump while addressing US soldiers and officials, flipped his stance on the India-Pakistan issue.
"I don't want to say I did, but I sure as hell helped settle the problem between Pakistan and India last week, which was getting more and more hostile, and all of a sudden, you'll start seeing missiles of a different type, and we got it settled," he said.
Noting the ongoing tariff issue, he then said that the US officials talked to India and Pakistan about trade.
"I hope I don't walk out of here and two days later find out that it's not settled, but I think it is settled, and we talked to them about trade. Let's do trade instead of, and Pakistan was very happy with that, and India was very happy with that, and I think they're on the way..." Trump added.
He further noted that India and Pakistan have been fighting for about "1000 years in all fairness". "So I said, you know. I could settle that up. I could settle; let me settle it up, and let's get them all together."
"I'm not sure about settling. That's a tough one. They've been fighting for a long time... It was really going to be escalating out of control," Trump added.
On Tuesday, India directly rejected Trump's claims that the US brokered the recent ceasefire agreement between India and Pakistan. Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal on Tuesday (May 13) said that the ceasefire understanding was reached directly between the two countries without any third-party involvement.
Without naming Trump, Jaiswal said, “We have a long-standing national position that any issues pertaining to the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir have to be addressed by India and Pakistan bilaterally. That stated policy has not changed.”