US President Donald Trump has reiterated his claim that he helped prevent a nuclear confrontation between India and Pakistan, insisting that his intervention saved millions of lives.
Speaking during his over 100-minute State of the Union address to Congress on Tuesday, Trump said Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif told him that around 35 million people would have died if the United States had not stepped in to broker a truce.
“In my first ten months, I ended eight wars, including Pakistan and India, which would have been a nuclear war. Thirty-five million people, said the Prime Minister of Pakistan, would have died if it were not for my involvement.”
The US president also claimed that his administration is working to end a ninth conflict, referring to the war between Russia and Ukraine.
“The killing and slaughter between Russia and Ukraine — this is a war that never would have happened if I were president.”
Trump has repeatedly credited himself with ending the India-Pakistan conflict, a claim he has made nearly 100 times since May last year.
On social media on May 10, 2025, he announced a “full and immediate” ceasefire between the two nuclear-armed neighbours after what he described as US-mediated talks.
India, however, has consistently denied any third-party intervention. According to New Delhi, the ceasefire came after direct negotiations between the two countries’ Directors General of Military Operations.
Operation Sindoor, launched by India on May 7 last year, targeted terror infrastructure in Pakistan in retaliation for the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22, which killed 26 civilians.
New Delhi has repeatedly stressed that the understanding to halt hostilities was reached bilaterally, following a call from Pakistan’s DGMO to India’s counterpart, and no external mediation took place.
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