Trump cites Asim Munir’s praise to bolster India-Pakistan ceasefire claim

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday (September 30) cited Pakistan Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir’s remarks to bolster his often repeated claim of mediating a ceasefire deal between India and Pakistan following intense four-day-military conflict after India’s Operation Sindoor.

Trump, while addressing top US military generals in Quantico said that he felt "honored" with Munir’s praise that he saved millions of lives by stopping the India-Pakistan conflict.

Trump lauds Munir’s praise as ‘beautiful’

Describing Munir as “a very important guy in Pakistan”, Trump said that he was at the White House three days ago adding that the Pakistani Army Chief credited him for saving “millions of lives” by stopping the war that wax going to get “very bad.”

“And I didn't even realise it, as beautiful as he said it, but he said that to a group of people that were with us, two generals, but a group, he said, ‘This man saved millions of lives because he saved the war from going on, and that war was going to get very bad, very, very bad. President Trump saved millions and millions of lives. That was a bad war’”, said Trump.

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‘Felt honoured’

Making it clear that he was pleased with Munir’s praise, Trump said that he was “very honoured” and “loved” the way Munir said it.

The US President said that White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles was there at the meeting too, and "she said that was the most beautiful thing. But we saved a lot of them. Saved a lot of them.”

Since May 10, following his sudden social media announcement that India and Pakistan had agreed to a “full and immediate” ceasefire after a “long night” of talks mediated by Washington, Trump has repeated the claim at least 50 times.

“I had India and Pakistan, (they) were going at it. And I called them both, and in this case, I used trade,” Trump said.

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Trump on his ceasefire claim

Trump said he told the “two big nuclear nations” that he is “not going to trade" with them. They responded, "'No, no, no, no, you cannot do that'. I said, 'yes, I can. You go into this freaking war that I'm hearing about’,” Trump said, adding that they shot down seven planes. He, however, did not specify which country's jets he was referring to.

“It was starting. There's a lot of bad blood. And I said, ‘You do this, there is not going to be any trade'. And I stopped the war. It was going, it was raging for four days, but that was just the beginning, and we stopped it. It was a great thing,” Trump said.

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The backdrop

Last week, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Army Chief Munir met Trump in the White House.

India has been consistently maintaining that the understanding on cessation of hostilities with Pakistan was reached following direct talks between the Directors General of Military Operations of the two militaries.

(With agency inputs)