Following US President Donald Trump's claim that he pressured New Delhi and Islamabad to stop border conflicts by threatening to cut trade with both countries, government sources told PTI that there was no reference to trade in talks between top leaders of India and the US during the India-Pakistan military conflict.
"I said, 'Come on, we're going to do a lot of trade with you guys. Let's stop it. Let's stop it. If you stop it, we're doing trade. If you don't stop it, we're not going to do any trade'," Trump earlier said at a press conference in the White House while sources told PTI that US Vice President JD Vance spoke to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on May 9 but there was no reference to trade in the conversation.
"After Operation Sindoor commenced, Vice President Vance spoke to the prime minister on May 9. Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on May 8 and May 10 and to NSA (National Security Advisor) Ajit Doval on May 10. There was no reference to trade in any of these discussions," PTI reported quoting sources.
The US president's remarks on trade talks came at a time when India and the US are engaged in negotiations on ambitious trade deal.
"People have never really used trade the way I used it, that I can tell you. And all of a sudden they (India and Pakistan) said, 'I think we're going to stop.'" "And they have, and they did it for a lot of reasons, but trade is a big one. We're going to do a lot of trade with Pakistan. We're going to do a lot of trade with India", Trump said.
US Stopped Indo-Pak Nuclear Conflict: Trump
On May 10, right ahead of the MEA briefing on Indo-Pak ceasefire, US President Donald Trump claimed that India and Pakistan agreed to a "full and immediate ceasefire" after mediation by America.
"After a long night of talks mediated by the United States, I am pleased to announce that India and Pakistan have agreed to a FULL AND IMMEDIATE CEASEFIRE. Congratulations to both Countries on using Common Sense and Great Intelligence. Thank you for your attention to this matter!", Trump posted on his Truth Social handle.
"We're negotiating with India right now. We're going to be soon negotiating with Pakistan, and we stopped a nuclear conflict," Trump claimed.
The US president again claimed that his administration helped broker what he described as a "full and immediate ceasefire" between India and Pakistan.
"On Saturday, my administration helped broker a full and immediate ceasefire, I think, a permanent one, between India and Pakistan, ending a dangerous conflict between two nations with lots of nuclear weapons," Trump said.
