Washington DC [US], November 3 (ANI): US President Donald Trump once again repeated his assertion that tariffs were instrumental in averting a “nuclear war” between India and Pakistan during the May 2025 escalation, claiming he warned both countries they would lose US trade access if they didn’t de-escalate.

In an interview with CBS News’s 60 Minutes, Trump claimed that the two countries were on the brink of nuclear conflict, adding that his threat to halt business with Washington helped bring both nations to negotiate a deal, averting a potential war.

“It did work with India and it did work with Pakistan and it did work with 60 per cent of those countries. I can tell you if it wasn’t for tariffs and trade, I wouldn’t have been able to make the deals. But I stopped as an example. India does a lot of business with us. They were going to war. They were going to have a nuclear war with Pakistan,” the US President said.

“That was a bad war. Shoot down airplanes all over the place. That was going to be a bad war. And I told both of them, ‘if you guys don’t work out a deal fast, you’re not going to do any business with the United States.’ And they do a lot of business with the United States and they were both great leaders and they worked out a deal and they stopped the war,” he added.

Trump’s comments on the India-Pakistan conflict refer to the escalation in May following India’s Operation Sindoor, a series of precision strikes on nine terrorist camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK) in retaliation for the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir that killed 26 civilians.

The US President had been repeating his claims of playing a key role in helping de-escalate tensions between India and Pakistan, arguing that trade and tariffs were instrumental to the US in preventing conflicts.

India has consistently refuted Trump’s claims, stating that the ceasefire was achieved bilaterally through the Director Generals of Military Operations (DGMOs), without third-party involvement.

India has also reiterated its long-standing position that any issues with Pakistan, including those related to Jammu and Kashmir, are to be resolved bilaterally between the two countries.

Meanwhile, during the interview, Trump also claimed that his approach had helped resolve multiple international disputes, including those between Cambodia and Thailand, Kosovo and Serbia, Congo and Rwanda, Israel and Iran, Egypt and Ethiopia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, and Israel and Hamas.

“I brought a little list of these wars. How many did I solve: Cambodia-Thailand, Kosovo-Serbia, Congo-Rwanda. Pakistan-India - that was going to be a beauty; they shot down seven planes. Israel and Iran. You’ve heard about that one. Egypt and Ethiopia. That’s another beauty. Ethiopia built a big dam where there’s no water going to the Nile. Armenia and Azerbaijan, and if you take a look at Israel and Hamas, which is a rough little situation, but it’s going to be,” he said, emphasising his role in conflict resolution through economic pressure and negotiations. (ANI)