MAY 12, 2025
President Donald Trump speaks during an event in the Roosevelt Room at the White House on Monday.
NEW DELHI: Trade didn’t figure at all in recent discussions between top US and Indian leaders on the India-Pakistan crisis, people familiar with the matter said on Monday, rebutting US President Donald Trump’s claim that he used trade to stop a conflict between two countries with “lots of nuclear weapons”.
Trump made the claim while addressing the media at the White House, where he reiterated his earlier contention that his administration helped “broker a full and immediate ceasefire” between India and Pakistan.
Trump was the first to announce on May 10 that the two countries had agreed to stop hostilities after four days of intense strikes and counter-strikes using drones, missiles and other long-range weapons. The Indian side has asserted the understanding on stopping all military actions was reached bilaterally by the Directors General of Military Operations (DGMOs).
After India’s military launched Operation Sindoor on May 7 to target terrorist infrastructure in territories controlled by Pakistan in retaliation for the Pahalgam terror attack of April 22, there was no mention of trade when US vice president JD Vance spoke to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on May 9, or when secretary of state Marco Rubio spoke to external affairs minister S Jaishankar on May 8 and 10 and to National Security Adviser Ajit Doval on May 10, the people cited above said on condition of anonymity.
Rebutting the claims from the US side, one person said: “There was no reference to trade in any of these discussions.”
During his remarks to the media at the White House, Trump referred to the “historic events” of the last few days and claimed trade was a big reason behind the decision by India and Pakistan to stop hostilities.
“On Saturday, my administration helped broker a full and immediate ceasefire, I think a permanent one, between India and Pakistan, ending a dangerous conflict of two nations with lots of nuclear weapons,” he said.
At a time when both countries were “going at it hot and heavy and it was seemingly not going to stop”, the US “helped a lot”, including with trade, to pull the two sides back from the brink, Trump said.
“I said, come on, we’re going to do a lot of trade with you guys, let’s stop it,” Trump said. “If you stop it, we’re doing trade. If you don’t stop it, we’re not going to do any trade. People have never really used trade the way I’ve used it but that I can tell you.”
He added, “Then, all of a sudden they said, I think we’re going to stop and they have. They did it for a lot of reasons but trade is a big one.”
Trump claimed that the US will “do a lot of trade” with India and Pakistan.
“We’re negotiating with India right now, we’re going to be soon negotiating with Pakistan and we stopped a nuclear conflict. I think it could have been a bad nuclear war , millions of people could have been killed,” he said.
Indian and US negotiators are currently finalising the first tranche of a bilateral trade agreement, which Trump and Modi decided at their meeting in Washington in February would be concluded by the fall of 2025. The trade deal is meant to address tariffs, non-tariff barriers and market access. Trump has also suspended customised tariffs of 26% on India till July.
Trump’s decision to announce what he said was a “full and immediate ceasefire” on May 10, before any formal statement from the Indian side, has not gone down well in New Delhi, the people said.
The cessation of hostilities was announced by Trump around 5.30 pm on Saturday and confirmed by India half an hour later. The people said the understanding with Pakistan was arrived at on India’s terms and wasn’t forced on New Delhi.
A statement from the US state department on May 10 described the understanding as a “US-brokered ceasefire” and Trump repeated his claim about helping India and Pakistan arrive at the “historic and heroic decision” in a social media post on May 11.
Ironically, Trump said in that same post: “While not even discussed, I am going to increase trade, substantially, with both these great Nations.”
At the same time, Trump repeated his offer to mediate on the Kashmir issue, saying he will work with both sides to see if a “solution can be arrived at concerning Kashmir”.
The Indian side has said that it will engage with Pakistan only at the level of the DGMOs and there will be no talks on issues such as Kashmir or the Indus Waters Treaty, which will remain suspended as part of punitive diplomatic and economic measures imposed against Pakistan over the Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 civilians.
Courtesy/Source: Hindustan Times / PTI
