New Delhi, May 21, 2025 \u2014 Former U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday reignited controversy by claiming he played a pivotal role in settling the recent flare-up of hostilities between India and Pakistan, a statement that Indian officials swiftly contradicted.<\/p>\n
Speaking during a tense bilateral meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in the Oval Office, Mr. Trump said, \u201cIf you take a look at what we did with Pakistan and India\u2026we settled that whole\u2026and I think I settled it through trade,\u201d implying that U.S.-India trade negotiations were linked to the cessation of violence following the April 22 civilian killings in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir.<\/p>\n
Trump also highlighted an ongoing \u201cbig deal\u201d with India, referring to discussions between Indian Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal and U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick aimed at advancing the first phase of a long-awaited trade agreement.<\/p>\n
However, Indian officials have firmly rejected any U.S. mediation in the conflict. In a briefing earlier this week to a Parliamentary panel, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri stated, \u201cWashington was neither involved nor informed\u201d about the ceasefire, emphasizing that any exchanges with the U.S. were part of routine diplomatic dialogue.<\/p>\n
Trump, known for his flamboyant claims, appeared to acknowledge potential backlash to his statement, adding with a smile, \u201cI hate to say we got it settled, and then two days later, something happens, and they say it\u2019s Trump\u2019s fault.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the dispute over his role, Trump praised both Pakistani leadership and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, calling them \u201cgreat\u201d and noting that both he and President Ramaphosa consider Modi a \u201cmutual friend.\u201d<\/p>\n
The former president also mentioned efforts to mediate the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, though offered no details.<\/p>\n
With India continuing to assert its autonomy in handling regional conflicts, Trump\u2019s comments are likely to be viewed as political posturing ahead of renewed trade engagements\u2014and potentially, the 2026 U.S. midterm elections.<\/p>\n
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New Delhi, May 21, 2025 \u2014 Former U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday reignited controversy by claiming he played a pivotal role in settling the recent flare-up of hostilities between … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3415,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_joinchat":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,35],"tags":[1953,1945,2077,2078,2079],"class_list":["post-3413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inn","category-national","tag-india","tag-news","tag-pahalgam","tag-pakistan","tag-trump","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ichelnewsnetwork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ichelnewsnetwork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ichelnewsnetwork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ichelnewsnetwork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ichelnewsnetwork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3413"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ichelnewsnetwork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3413\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8847,"href":"https:\/\/ichelnewsnetwork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3413\/revisions\/8847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ichelnewsnetwork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ichelnewsnetwork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ichelnewsnetwork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}