NEW DELHI, Feb 19: The United States President Donald Trump on Thursday repeated his claim of mediating between India and Pakistan during the “Operation Sindoor” in May, last year, but with a twist that the war was becoming expensive with jets being shot down. India has, on multiple occasions, rejected any third-party mediation in the matter.
Speaking at his Board of Peace event, Trump once again brought back his claim of planes being shot down, alleging that “11 jets were shot down.” This claim has also been strongly denied by India. “When it came to losing a lot of money, they said, I guess we don’t want to fight…11 jets were shot down. Very expensive jets…” the US President said during the event.
Trump has, over recent months, alleged more than 80 times that he halted the India-Pakistan conflict. He has further, at different times, given different numbers for his remarks on jets being shot down.
The US President had, a week ago, claimed that the number of jets shot down in the military standoff was 10. In his initial claim, he mentioned five jets were shot down, which he increased to seven jets in August and to eight jets in November, followed by 10 and now 11 jets.
Apart from this, Trump further alleged using trade deals and tariffs as leverage to deter both countries, another claim which has not been ratified by New Delhi. “…I called them and I said, listen, I’m not doing trade deals with you two guys if you don’t settle this up… And all of a sudden, we worked out a deal. I said, if you fight, I’m going to put 200 per cent tariffs on each of your countries,” the US President said.
Halfway through, Trump also referred to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, claiming he was “watching” the event. “I spoke to Prime Minister Modi. He’s excited. He’s watching us right now,” the US President said.
(Manas Dasgupta)