Trump says seven brand-new aircraft shot down during Pak-India May conflict

United States President Donald Trump has claimed that seven aircraft were shot down during the brief military escalation between India and Pakistan in May, adding that American trade pressure helped prevent the situation from worsening.

Speaking at a dinner with business leaders during his visit to Japan on Tuesday, Trump said that many global conflicts were avoided due to the trade tariffs his administration imposed on several countries, calling it “a great service to the world.”

“If you look at India and Pakistan, they were going at it,” Trump said. “Seven brand-new, beautiful planes were shot down. I said to [Indian] Prime Minister Narendra Modi and to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, a very nice man, a very good man, and the Field Marshal [Asim Munir] over in Pakistan, ‘look, we’re not going to do any trade if you’re going to be fighting’.”

“We said, ‘no, we’re not doing any deals if you’re going to fight,’ and within 24 hours that was the end of that,” Trump added. “It was amazing, actually. I think trade is responsible for 70 per cent of the fact that we didn’t have wars.”

The May conflict, described as the worst confrontation between the two nuclear-armed neighbours in decades, began after an attack on tourists in IIOJK, which New Delhi alleged was backed by Pakistan. Islamabad strongly denied the accusation, with its Foreign Office calling India’s account “replete with fabrications.”