US President Donald Trump has claimed that five jets were shot down during the India-Pakistan conflict in May early this year. He, however, didn’t elaborate which side the jets belonged to.
Trump also repeated his claim that he resolved the conflict using trade. The US president said that his side clearly told India and Pakistan that US will not sign a trade deal if they continue to attack each other.
“We stopped a lot of wars. And these were serious, India and Pakistan, that was going on. Planes were being shot out of there. I think five jets were shot down, actually. These are two serious nuclear countries, and they were hitting each other. You know, it seems like a new form of warfare. You saw it recently when you looked at what we did in Iran, where we knocked out their nuclear capability, totally knocked out that… But India and Pakistan were going at it, and they were back and forth, and it was getting bigger and bigger, and we got it solved through trade,” he said at a private dinner at the White House on Friday.
Trump further added: “We said, you guys want to make a trade deal. We’re not making a trade deal if you’re going to be throwing around weapons, and maybe nuclear weapons, both very powerful nuclear states.”
Following the Pahalgam attack, India launched air strikes on several terror camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. In response, Pakistan also launched a massive drone and missile strikes on several Indian cities but most of the attacks were foiled by multi-layered Indian air defences.
During the conflict, Pakistan also claimed to have shot down six Indian jets, including Rafale. However, the Indian side rejected the Pakistani numbers but Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Anil Chouhan admitted jets were shot down.
Later, Indian defence attache to Indonesia, Captain Shiv Kumar claimed that the fighter planes were shot down due to political constraints.
Trump’s claim of blackmailing India into agreeing to a ceasefire with Pakistan also comes amid ongoing trade talks between New Delhi and Washington. The talks are on advance level and a trade deal could be signed soon.
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