Trump reiterates ending India-Pakistan conflict in UN speech

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday (September 23) reiterated that he stopped the conflict between India and Pakistan in May, this time making his claim from the podium of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).

In his speech at the General Debate of the high-level 80th session of the global assembly, the mercurial leader also accused the world body of failing to “even try to help” in ending the conflicts.

'Ending 7 wars in 7 months'

In contrast, the US president said he ended seven “unendable” wars in as many months.

“Likewise, in a period of just seven months, I have ended seven unendable wars. They said they were ‘unendable, you are never going to get them solved’,” Trump said.

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The Republican leader said some of the wars he helped end were going on for decades.

“I ended seven wars, and in all cases they were raging, with countless thousands of people being killed. This includes Cambodia and Thailand, Kosovo and Serbia, the Congo and Rwanda — a vicious, violent war that was, Pakistan and India, Israel and Iran, Egypt and Ethiopia and Armenia and Azerbaijan,” he said.

“It included all of them. No president or prime minister, and for that matter, no other country has ever done anything close to that. And I did it in just seven months. It's never happened before," Trump added.

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Since May 10, when Trump announced on social media that India and Pakistan had agreed to a “full and immediate” ceasefire after a “long night” of talks mediated by Washington DC, he has repeated his claim nearly 50 times that he “helped settle” the tensions between India and Pakistan, much to the chagrin of New Delhi.

India on Trump's claims

India has consistently maintained that the understanding on cessation of hostilities with Pakistan was reached following direct talks between the two countries’ directors general of military operations.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has remarked in Parliament that no leader of any country asked India to stop Operation Sindoor, which was launched following a deadly terror attack on Hindu terrorists in Pahalgam in Kashmir in April. The air operation saw Pakistan retaliating, raising fears that things would escalate between the two nuclear powers before the sudden ceasefire happened.

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External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has also categorically said that no third-party intervention happened in bringing about a ceasefire with Pakistan during the military operation.

Trump blasts UN

In his first address to world leaders from the UN podium in his second term as the president, Trump lashed out at the UN, saying it did not offer any help in ending these raging conflicts.

"It’s too bad that I had to do these things instead of the UN doing them. And sadly, in all cases, the UN did not even try to help in any of them. I ended seven wars, dealt with the leaders of each and every one of these countries, and never even received a phone call from the UN offering to help in finalising the deal,” he said.

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He added that he didn't think about it at the time because he was "too busy" working to save millions of lives and stopping these wars.

"But later I realised that the United Nations wasn't there for us. They weren't there. I thought of it really after the fact, not during, not during these negotiations, which were not easy.

“That being the case, what is the purpose of the UN. The UN has such tremendous potential. I've always said it, it has such tremendous, tremendous potential, but it's not even coming close to living up to that potential for the most part. At least for now, all they seem to do is write a really strongly worded letter and then never follow that letter up. It’s empty words, and empty words don't solve war. The only thing that solves war and wars is action.” Trump said that even after ending all of these wars and negotiating the Abraham Accords (agreements signed during Trump’s first term between Israel and a number of Arab nations), the US received no credit.

Winning prizes not priority: Trump

“Everyone says that I should get the Nobel Peace Prize for each one of these achievements. But for me, the real prize will be the sons and daughters who live to grow up with their mothers and fathers because millions of people are no longer being killed in endless and unglorious wars. What I care about is not winning prizes, it’s saving lives. We saved millions and millions of lives with the seven wars, and we have others that we're working on,” he said.

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Many countries, including Israel, Pakistan and Cambodia, have nominated the American president for the Nobel Prize in peace.

On Ukraine war

Trump said he has also been working relentlessly to stop the killing in Ukraine. He said of the seven wars that he has stopped, “I thought that would be the easiest because of my relationship with President Putin, which had always been a good one. I thought that was going to be the easiest one. But you know, in war, you never know what's going to happen. There are always lots of surprises, both good and bad.

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“Everyone thought Russia would win this war in three days, but it didn't work out that way. It was supposed to be just a quick little skirmish. It's not making Russia look good. It's making them look bad.”

He added that the Ukraine conflict should have ended within a matter of days, certainly less than a week, and “they've been fighting for three and a half years and killing” anywhere from 5000-7000 young soldiers on both sides every single week.

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“This war would never have started if I were president. This was a war that should have never happened. It shows you what leadership is, what bad leadership can do to a country….The only question now is, how many more lives will be needlessly lost on both sides?” the president said.

(With inputs from agencies)