US President Donald Trump on Friday repeated his claim that he helped “settle” tensions between India and Pakistan following a four-day military confrontation that, according to him, could have escalated into a “nuclear conflict”. While addressing the White House at a trilateral signing ceremony with Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev and Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Trump mentioned that five or six planes were destroyed in the India-Pakistan conflict, without specifying the losses on both sides. India has consistently maintained that the cessation of hostilities with Pakistan was achieved through direct talks between the Directors General of Military Operations (DGMOs) of both countries, without any mediation by Washington.
Trump, flanked by the two Caucasus leaders after brokering a peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan, said, “As President, my highest aspiration is to bring peace and stability to the world. Today’s signing follows our success with India and Pakistan.” “They were going at it, they were going at it big and they were two great leaders that came together just prior to what would have been a tremendous conflict, as you know, a nuclear conflict, probably.” Asserting that he is settling conflicts through trade, he added “I got things settled with India, Pakistan. I think it was trade more than any other reason. That’s how I got involved. I said, ‘You know, I don’t want to be dealing with countries that are trying to blow themselves up and maybe the world’. They are nuclear nations.”
Trump referred to the conflict between India and Pakistan twice during his remarks at the event, adding them to the nearly 35 previous occasions where he has claimed that he stopped the war between the two countries through trade. “That was a big one, getting that one settled. I think you’d agree that was a big one,” Trump said, turning to the Azerbaijani President. “And they were going at it, you know, they were shooting airplanes out of the sky… five or six planes got shot down in their last little skirmish, and then it was going to escalate from there. That could have gotten to be very, very bad,” Trump claimed. At the ceremony, Trump added that he is solving conflicts around the world because he wants to save a lot of lives. “I love saving lives. That’s what it’s about. And you know, when you save lives, you really end up having a peaceful world. Usually that ends up pretty well.”
Armenia-Azerbaijan Peace Agreement
The Washington signing ceremony ended four decades of fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave. The agreement gives Azerbaijan complete access to the enclave while being sensitive to Armenia’s sovereignty, with the US creating a transit corridor for as long as 99 years. Trump called the agreement a “major diplomatic breakthrough” that would bring “lasting peace” to the Caucasus region and increase trade, investment, and energy ties. Azerbaijani President Aliyev declared that there would be “no going back” on the agreement, while Armenian Prime Minister Pashinyan promised “eternal peace in the Caucasus.” The two leaders committed to nominating Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize. “Who, if not President Trump, deserves it?” Aliyev asked.
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Reflecting on his tenure, Trump also listed the conflicts between Congo and Rwanda, Thailand and Cambodia and Serbia and Kosovo that he said he helped settle. Responding to a question on the Ukraine war, Trump said, “I think we are getting close.” “I think that a lot of things happened recently that would make this go forward. I’m not going to mention anything having to do with India, but maybe that had an impact. But what really had an impact was NATO has stepped up in terms of their spending on buying military equipment.” Trump also said that no matter what he does, he will not be given the Nobel Peace Prize. “I’m not politicking for it. I have a lot of people that are…it would be a great honour, certainly, but I would never politick. I’m not doing it for that. I’m doing it because of I really, number one, I want to save lives. That’s why I’m involved so much with Ukraine and Russia.”
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The White House reported that the deal also provides the US with exclusive development rights to the southern Armenia transit corridor, which is viewed as crucial for regional energy and technology cooperation. US Senator Marco Rubio welcomed the milestone on X, describing it as a “historic deal” that would make the region more powerful and create “new doors for American trade and investment.”