During a Tuesday speech in Saudi Arabia, President Donald Trump highlighted the role his administration played in brokering a “historic ceasefire” between India and Pakistan following an escalation in tension and conflict between the two countries last week.
“Just days ago, my administration successfully brokered a historic ceasefire to stop the escalating violence between India and Pakistan, and I used trade to a large extent to do it,” Trump said during his speech in Saudi Arabia.
“I said, ‘Fellas, come on, let’s make a deal. Let’s do some trading. Let’s not trade nuclear missiles. Let’s trade the things that you make so beautifully,” Trump added. “And they both have very powerful leaders, very strong leaders, good leaders, smart leaders. And it all stopped. Hopefully, it’ll remain that way, but it all stopped.”
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After emphasizing the importance of trade in the ceasefire negotiations between India and Pakistan, Trump recognized Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President J.D. Vance for leading his administration’s efforts to secure a ceasefire between the two countries. The 47th president said that India and Pakistan were “actually getting along” following the ceasefire and joked that the leaders of India and Pakistan could “go out and have a nice dinner together.”
“We’ve come a long way,” Trump said. “Millions of people could have died from that conflict that started off small and was getting bigger and bigger and bigger by the day.”
Prior to his speech in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, Trump made similar comments regarding the use of trade in the India-Pakistan ceasefire negotiations while speaking with reporters at the White House.
“We helped a lot, and we helped also with trade. 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’ll do a trade. If you don’t stop it, we’re not going to do any trade,'” Trump said. “People have never really used trade the way I used it, that I can tell you.”
“And all of a sudden, they said, I think we’re going to stop,” Trump added. “They did it for a lot of reasons, but trade is a big one.”
Following Trump’s comments to reporters on Monday, Randhir Jaiswal, a spokesperson for India’s Foreign Ministry, said that while India’s leaders were in contact with U.S. officials in the midst of escalating tension between India and Pakistan, trade was not part of the conversations, according to The Associated Press.
“The issue of trade did not come up in any of these discussions,” Jaiswal said.
