After Alaska summit with Putin, Trump again claims he prevented India-Pakistan nuclear war

US President Donald Trump on Monday reiterated his claims of preventing wars across the globe, including between India and Pakistan, after his Alaska summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. He defended his administration’s push for ceasefires in conflicts that, as Fox News host Sean Hannity noted, “do not impact the United States as much as [they do] allies in Europe.”

Trump’s remarks came just hours after his much-anticipated meeting with Putin ended without any breakthrough on halting Moscow’s war in Ukraine.

In an interview on Hannity, the Fox News primetime show, Trump was asked why he was devoting time and energy to disputes far from US shores.

Sean Hannity pressed him, “This (Ukraine war) does not impact United States as much as it does our allies in Europe. But you are doing it anyway. Why?”

Trump replied that his efforts were aimed at saving lives and preventing catastrophic escalation.

“Number one, to save lives in all cases. Cause wars are wars. See what would have happened with Cambodia as an example. I was involved with negotiating a trade,” Trump said.

He then claimed that a ceasefire between India and Pakistan would not have been possible without his involvement, a claim New Delhi has consistently denied.

“Take a look at India and Pakistan. They were shooting down airplanes already. And that would have been maybe nuclear. I would have said it was gonna get nuclear, but I was able to get it done. Number one is lives, number two is everything else,” Trump added.

Trump has often said that without his intervention, “six major wars” would have erupted worldwide. “India would be fighting with Pakistan. You see what we did yesterday with two nations that we were trading with,” he said, referring to the recent ceasefire between Thailand and Cambodia after five days of border clashes that left at least 33 people dead.

According to Trump, Washington pressured the two Southeast Asian nations by threatening to withhold trade deals unless they agreed to stop fighting. “We got them settled in 24 hours,” he said.

India rejects Trump’s claims

Trump’s comments once again clash with New Delhi’s repeated denials. External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar told Parliament that the understanding with Pakistan was reached directly through talks between the Directors General of Military Operations (DGMOs), without any US involvement.