Trump prevented war between India, Pakistan during presidency, says Marco Rubio

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio attributed then-President Donald Trump with averting a potentially catastrophic war between India and Pakistan during his presidency.

At a White House Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Rubio, sitting next to Trump, emphasized a list of achievements credited to the leadership of the former President.

"Just going through a list here Mr President and all these achievements that have occurred domestically. Under your leadership, we've prevented and ended a war between India and Pakistan," he added.

Rubio continued to mention other diplomatic achievements made while Trump was president, such as the peace agreement between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Mentioning a short-lived 12-day war, Rubio said it ended because of "an American operation that we're the only country in the world that could have done," and said negotiations were in progress for a potential peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

He also highlighted shifting dynamics in the Middle East, attributing to Trump's foreign policy style. "The whole Middle East and the fabric of it has the potential now to shift because of Syria and Lebanon. And it hasn't even been 6 months. It's a great testament to your leadership and the team," Rubio added.

Only a day ago, Trump reiterated his assertion of intervening to avert what he intimated could have turned into a nuclear showdown between India and Pakistan. Addressing reporters ahead of a dinner with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump stated he had informed both South Asian countries that further aggression would be expensive.

We did a job with India and Pakistan, Serbia, Kosovo, Rwanda and the Congo, and this was all over the last three weeks or so and others that were ready to fight," Trump said.

He explained how trade negotiations were employed as a tool to diffuse tensions. "We quashed a lot of battles. I think the very large one, and I speak frankly, a very, very large one was India and Pakistan. And we quashed that on trade. We're negotiating with India. We're negotiating with Pakistan," he said.

Describing his government's approach, Trump further said, "We said we're not going to be dealing with you at all if you're going to fight. And they were maybe at a nuclear stage. They're both nuclear powers. And I think stopping that was very important.