U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday (IST) claimed that he had a crucial role in mitigating recent tensions between India and Pakistan, indicating that trade talks were the key to their de-escalation.
In his response while speaking to the press in the Oval Office during a sitting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Trump stated, "If you look at what we just did with Pakistan and India. we resolved that entire, and I think I resolved it through trade."
India Pushes Back on Mediation Assertion
India, though, has denied Trump's claims of his engagement in the breakthrough all along. Even though he again and again claimed that third-party intervention was indispensable in reducing tensions since India and Pakistan achieved a ceasefire on May 10, Indian officials reiterated that there was no third-party involvement in reducing tensions since Operation Sindoor.
In a closed-door presentation to a parliamentary committee on May 19, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri explained India's strategy after the conflict without ever mentioning American intervention.
Trump, in an earlier interview to Fox News, had highlighted the importance of the fact and said, "A bigger success than I'll ever be given credit for. Those are major nuclear powers. Those are not like a little bit, and they were angry."
The Build-Up and Operation Sindoor
The conflict traces back to the deadly April 22 attack in Pahalgam, where 26 people—mostly tourists—lost their lives in a terrorist strike. In retaliation, India launched a series of precision missile strikes during the night of May 6–7, targeting nine terror camps located in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir under the codename Operation Sindoor.
Before the military action, New Delhi initiated a series of firm diplomatic actions. These involved downgrading diplomatic interaction with Islamabad, suspending the Indus Waters Treaty, and withdrawing visa facilities under the SAARC Visa Exemption Scheme (SVES).
Pakistan responded with heavy shelling of artillery across the Line of Control (LoC), which led to four days of cross-border firing. A mutual decision to halt military action and restore peace by May 10 ended the standoff.
Trump has taken behind-the-scenes credit for the resolution, but India's official position remains the same—that it was the result of its own strategic choices rather than international intervention.
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