Washington: US President Donald Trump has claimed that five fighter jets were shot down during a serious escalation between India and Pakistan, asserting that his intervention helped prevent a war between the two nuclear-armed nations. Trump, however, did not specify which country the downed planes belonged to.
“We’ve stopped a lot of wars. What was happening between India and Pakistan was serious. The planes were flying in the air. I believe that five fighter jets were actually shot down,” Trump said while speaking at a dinner hosted by the White House for Republican senators on Friday.
He added that the US resolved the tensions through trade discussions, telling India and Pakistan, “Do you guys want to have a trade deal? If you’re using weapons and maybe nuclear weapons, we won’t have a trade deal.”
Trump’s remarks have come ahead of India’s monsoon session of Parliament, giving the main opposition Congress a new issue to target the government.
During the same event, Trump reiterated his threat to impose a 10 per cent tax on imports from BRICS nations, saying, “When I heard about this group of BRICS, I attacked them very hard, and if they ever really made it the right way, it’s going to end very quickly.”
He added that the US “can never let anyone play games with us,” without naming specific countries.
