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United States President Donald Trump has again claimed that he played a key role in defusing tensions between India and Pakistan by threatening to impose massive tariffs on both countries, saying the move “stopped the fighting” between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.
In an interview with Fox News on Wednesday, Trump said his “ability” to use trade and tariffs as diplomatic leverage helped bring “peace to the world” in multiple conflict zones.
Tariffs, he said, “give you a tremendous road to peace and the saving of millions of lives, just millions and millions of lives”.
The president said he made seven peace deals where countries, in many cases, were fighting for hundreds of years and “millions of people were being killed”.
“Not in all cases, but probably in at least five of the seven (peace deals) we’ve done, it was through trade. We’re not going to deal with people that fight,” he said.
Trump said he told the countries that “we are not going to let you deal in the United States. We’ll put tariffs on you”.
To buttress his point, he gave the example of the recent military conflict between India and Pakistan, which he again claimed to have stopped.
Trump said he had told both India and Pakistan that the US would halt trade and impose “massive tariffs” unless they “put it together” and stop the fighting.
“You look at India and Pakistan, I said, well, we’re not going to do business with either of you if you don’t put it together. These are two nuclear nations. Seven planes were shot down, as you know, and they were really at it,” Trump said. He, however, did not specify which country’s jets he was referring to.
