Bigger success than I'll ever be given credit for: Trump on India, Pak ceasefire

US President has said his talking to India and Pakistan and bringing them back from the brink is a “bigger success" than he’ll ever be given credit for, saying there was “great hatred” among the two nations and tensions got to a point where the next phase was probably “nuclear”.

“A bigger success than I'll ever be given credit for. Those are major nuclear powers. Those are not like a little bit, and they were angry,” Trump said in an interview to Fox News on Friday, 16 May.

Trump was asked about the "couple of foreign policy successes” before his trip to the Middle East, when he picked up the phone and called India and Pakistan. Trump replied, “I did, ya”.

The interviewer said that was a success.    

“And the next phase was probably, did you see where it was getting? It was tit for tat. It was getting deeper and more, I mean, more missiles, everyone was ‘stronger, stronger’, so to a point where the next one's going to be, you know what? The N word. You know the N word is, right?” Trump asked the interviewer, to which he replied “nuclear”.

“It's the N word. That’s a very nasty word, right? In a lot of ways. The N word used in a nuclear sense, that's the worst thing that can happen. And I think they were very close. The hatred was great. And I said, ‘We're going to talk about trade. We're going to do a lot of trade’,” Trump said.

Trump went on to say that “I'm using trade to settle scores and to make peace. 

“India… they're one of the highest tariff nations in the world, they make it almost impossible to do business. Do you know that they're willing to cut 100% of their tariffs for the United States?” Trump said.

There has been no announcement from India over the issue.

When asked if the deal with India is coming soon, Trump said, “Yeah, that'll come soon. I'm in no rush. Look, everybody wants to make a deal with us.”

“South Korea wants to make a deal…but I'm not going to make deals with everybody. I'm just going to set the limit. I'll make another some deals… because I can't, you can't meet with that many people. I've got 150 countries that want to make deals,” Trump said.

This was the seventh time in as many days that Trump repeated his claim that he “helped settle” the tensions between India and Pakistan. 

India carried out precision strikes under 'Operation Sindoor' on terror infrastructure early on 7 May in response to the 22 April Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 people.

Following the Indian action, Pakistan attempted to attack Indian military bases on 8, 9 and 10 May. The Indian forces launched a fierce counter-attack on several Pakistani military installations.

India and Pakistan reached an understanding on 10 May to end the military confrontation after four days of intense cross-border drone and missile strikes.

On 10 May, Trump had announced that India and Pakistan agreed to a “full and immediate” ceasefire after a “long night” of talks mediated by Washington.