US President Donald Trump claimed on Monday that his administration had “stopped a nuclear conflict” between India and Pakistan — assuring that America would soon undertake ‘lots of trade’ with both nations. The POTUS had ruffled feathers over the weekend after offering to ‘mediate’ over the Kashmir issue and the US State Department urged the estranged neighbours to engage in “direct dialogue”. The remarks came even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi insisted during a fiery address on Monday evening that India would not bend to ‘nuclear blackmail’ and noted that terrorism could not go hand in hand with trade and talks.
“We stopped a nuclear conflict. I think it could have been a bad nuclear war. Millions of people could have been killed…We helped a lot, and we also helped 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’re doing trade. If you don’t stop it, we’re not going to do any trade. People have never really used trade the way I used it. By that, I can tell you, and all of a sudden they said. I think we’re gonna stop, and they have,” Trump said.
The President also assured that the US would soon undertake a “lot of trade” with both India and Pakistan. New Delhi is currently involved in negotiations with Washington to iron out a trade deal following the imposition of sweeping reciprocal tariffs.
The remarks came even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivered a fiery national address on Monday evening — assuring that India would not tolerate ‘nuclear blackmail’ and vowing a befitting response to acts of terrorism. He also reiterated that New Delhi had only “paused” its counteroffensive against Pakistani terrorist and military establishments and continued to evaluate the situation.
“After being badly defeated, on the afternoon of May 10, the Pakistani army contacted our DGMO. By then, we had already destroyed a large part of the terrorist infrastructure, eliminated many terrorists, and turned their terror nests in Pakistan into ruins. When Pakistan pleaded and said it would refrain from further terrorist and military provocations, India took this into consideration,” he said.
PM Modi also shared a message for the global community on Monday about its declared policy.
“If talks are to happen with Pakistan, they will only be on terrorism. And if talks happen with Pakistan, they will be about Pakistan-occupied Kashmir…India’s stand is absolutely clear—Terror and talks cannot go hand in hand. Terror and trade cannot go together. Water and blood cannot flow together,” he added.