US President Donald Trump on Wednesday once again claimed credit for brokering a ceasefire between India and Pakistan, telling lawmakers during his State of the Union address that his intervention averted a potential nuclear conflict between the two countries.
Speaking to Congress, the US President also stressed that the situation could have escalated into a nuclear war. “Pakistan and India were in a nuclear war,” Trump said, adding that “35 million people, as the Prime Minister of Pakistan (Shehbaz Sharif) said, would have died if it had not been for my involvement.”
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Since the standoff in May 2025, Trump has repeatedly asserted that he was responsible for stopping the India-Pakistan conflict. He has consistently maintained that his administration used trade agreements and customs measures as a means to dissuade the two countries from escalating tensions, a claim that New Delhi has not supported.
The Republican president was referring to the military confrontation that followed the Pahalgam terrorist attack on April 22 last year, in which 26 civilians were killed. In response, India carried out strikes on terrorist bases in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and Pakistan under Operation Sindoor.
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Earlier last week too, Trump reiterated his claim that he mediated between India and Pakistan during the May 2025 standoff.
Speaking at the peace council event, US President Donald Trump said he had warned India and Pakistan that trade negotiations would stall unless they resolved their differences. “…I called them, and I said, ‘Listen, I’m not going to do business with you if you don’t sort this out…’ And all of a sudden, we came to an agreement. And I said, ‘If you fight, I’m going to slap 200 percent tariffs on each of your countries,'” he said.
In recent months, US President Donald Trump has claimed more than eighty times that he was responsible for stopping the India-Pakistan conflict. He has also, on various occasions, cited different figures regarding the downing of aircraft during hostilities. But he did not specify which side’s planes he was referring to in his statements.
Meanwhile, New Delhi stressed that the ceasefire understanding reached on May 10 was the result of direct talks between India and Pakistan, stressing that there was no third-party participation in the process.
