WASHINGTON: Amid easing tensions following a ceasefire bet\u00adween India and Pakistan, Presi\u00addent Donald Trump has claimed that US intervention prevented a \u201cbad nuclear war\u201d between the two nations, while Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a televised address to the nation asserted that New Delhi would not tolerate \u201cnuclear blackmail\u201d in the event of further conflict with Islamabad.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s comments, made during a press interaction at the White House, signal a rare moment of US diplomatic mediation bet\u00adween the two South Asian nuclear powers and suggest a broader Ameri\u00adcan strategy that ties peace to economic engagement.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe stopped a nuclear conflict. I think it could have been a bad nuclear war. Millions of people could have been killed,\u201d Trump said while talking to reporters.<\/p>\n
This is perhaps one of the starkest warnings yet from the US leader, who has rarely minced words in highlighting global security threats. His remarks reflect Washing\u00adton\u2019s growing concern about the fragile peace between India and Pakistan, both of whom possess significant nuclear arsenals and a long history of military confrontations.<\/p>\n
In a tone that combined both reassurance and transactional diplomacy, Trump added that the United States is prepared to enhance trade with both countries \u2014 if they continue to engage in dialogue. \u201cWe\u2019re going to do a lot of trade with Pakistan. We\u2019re going to do a lot of trade with India. We\u2019re negotiating with India right now. We\u2019re going to be soon negotiating with Pakistan,\u201d he said, linking the prospect of economic cooperation to continued regional stability.<\/p>\n
Trump, who appeared eager to underscore his adm\u00adinistration\u2019s peacemaking role, said: \u201cOn Sat\u00adu\u00adrday, my administration helped broker an immediate ceasefire, I think a maybe permanent one bet\u00adween India and Pakistan \u2014 the countries having a lot of nuclear weapons.\u201d<\/p>\n
His assertion, while dramatic, underscores the high stakes involved in this latest confrontation and his belief that trade can be a powerful tool of diplomacy.<\/p>\n
He also praised the leadership of both countries for their roles in defusing the situation. \u201cI\u2019m very proud to let you know that the leadership of India and Pakistan was unwavering and powerful, but unwavering in both cases \u2014 they really were from the standpoint of having the strength and the wisdom and fortitude to fully know and to understand the gravity of the situation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Trump also offered a unique insight into how he leveraged economic incentives to push both sides toward de-escalation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe helped a lot, and we also helped with trade. I said \u2018Come on, we\u2019re going to do a lot of trade with you guys. Let\u2019s stop it, let\u2019s stop it. If you stop it, we\u2019re doing trade\u2019,\u201d he said. He then added: \u201cIf you don\u2019t stop it, we\u2019re 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\u2019re gonna stop, and they have.\u201d<\/p>\n
In concluding his remarks, the president emphasised once again the magnitude of what he believed had been averted. \u201cWe stopped a nuclear conflict,\u201d he declared, before offering thanks to members of his administration. \u201cI also want to thank VP JD Vance and Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, for their work,\u201d he said, crediting them for helping facilitate the peace process.<\/p>\n
While the claims made by President Trump will be scrutinised in Washington and South Asia, they do indicate a willingness on the part of the US to reassert its role as a mediator in global conflicts. Whether these efforts translate into a lasting peace between India and Pak\u00adi\u00adstan, however, remains to be seen.<\/p>\n
\u2018Nuclear blackmail\u2019<\/p>\n
Indian PM Modi vowed on Monday to respond strongly to any future \u201cterrorist attack\u201d, and cautioned that India would not succumb to \u2018nuclear blackmail\u2019 in the face of future provocations.<\/p>\n
A weekend ceasefire which Trump said he brokered appeared to be holding on Monday after four days of intense jet fighter, missile, drone and artillery attacks \u2014 the worst violence between the two nuclear-armed neighbours since 1999.<\/p>\n
The conflict followed an April 22 attack on tourists in Pahalgam, in India-held Kashmir, which killed 26 civilians.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WASHINGTON: Amid easing tensions following a ceasefire bet\u00adween India and Pakistan, Presi\u00addent Donald Trump has claimed that US intervention prevented a \u201cbad nuclear war\u201d between the two nations, while Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a televised address to the nation asserted that New Delhi would not tolerate \u201cnuclear blackmail\u201d in the event of further conflict […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9087,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9086"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9086\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9088,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9086\/revisions\/9088"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}