ISLAMABAD: US President Donald Trump on Wednesday said that “eight planes were shot down” in the conflict between India and Pakistan in May, stating that he was in the middle of a “trade deal with both of them” during the time.
While referring to the aerial encounters between the neighbors, Trump has repeatedly said “seven planes were shot down” during the war. In September, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif told the United Nations General Assembly that Pakistani forces had turned seven Indian aircraft into “scrap and dust.” The Indian military has also claimed that it shot down five Pakistani fighter jets, a statement dismissed by Defense Minister Khawaja Asif on X, who termed the claim “comical.”
While speaking at the America Business Forum in Miami today, the US president said he was in the middle of a trade deal with both countries during the conflict.
“Then I read on the front page of a certain newspaper … they are going to war. Seven or eight plans — planes were shot down,” the US president said.
“Eight planes were shot down essentially,” he added.
Trump said that he conveyed it to the neighbors that the US was not going to make any deals with them if they were at “war with each other.
“A day later I got a call, they need peace. They stopped. I said thank you, let's trade. Isn't that great?” Trump said.
“Tariffs did that. Without tariffs, that would've never happened,” he added.
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