Before Xi meet, Trump says trade deal with India on, repeats ceasefire claim

At the same time, Trump repeated his claims regarding his role in the India-Pakistan ceasefire in May. Officials here said they have stopped keeping count of the number of times he has said this. Amid trade talks, New Delhi has stopped rebutting these claims publicly. The most forceful rejoinder had come when Modi and Trump had the phone call in June. Ties between the two countries nosedived since then, after Trump sought more in terms of concessions in the trade deal and put in an extra 25 per cent as penalty for buying Russian oil.

While there’s been a thaw with Modi and Trump resuming conversations and have spoken at least thrice since September — including once when Trump wished him on his 75th birthday — Delhi, officials said, has been focused on concluding the deal rather than rebutting the US President’s claims on the ceasefire.

The view in New Delhi’s official circles is that there isn’t much to gain contradicting a claim “beyond a point”, that will only be “counterproductive”. “The key goal now is to arrive at a positive outcome, secure a deal which is a win-win, tariffwise,” said an official.

It’s this that has made India also duck a couple of opportunities where Modi could have met with Trump. The PM did not go for the Sharm el-Sheikh summit on the Gaza peace plan and the ASEAN & East Asia leaders’ summit in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. “Unless there is a deal that’s done, there is not much to gain in a personal meeting between the two,” said a source. Any public claims regarding the ceasefire in Modi’s presence, the source said, would put the PM in a “politically awkward” spot given.

While this approach of skipping any meeting has been criticised by the Opposition led by the Congress, New Delhi is focused on negotiations for the trade deal as that, they feel, will substantively move the needle in India’s favour and deepen the thaw in Indo-US ties.

Also, the fact that India is on the path to reducing the Russian oil imports, because of the cost advantage evaporating due to the US sanctions on Russian oil firms — is a signal to Washington as well.

Speaking at the APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) CEO Summit in Gyeongju, South Korea, where he landed from Japan as part of a three-nation tour of Asia, Trump said, “If you look at India and Pakistan … so, I’m doing a trade deal with India and I have great respect and love, as you know, for Prime Minister Modi, we have a great relationship…Prime Minister Modi is the nicest looking guy … he looks like you’d like to have your father like… he’s a killer… he’s tough as hell.”

While emphasising that he has a “great relationship” with Modi, Trump reiterated that he used trade to resolve the war between India and Pakistan.

“I called Prime Minister Modi. I said, we can’t make a trade deal with you… (He said) No, no, we must make a trade… I said, No, we can’t. You are starting a war with Pakistan. We’re not going to do it,” Trump said.

He also praised Pakistan’s army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir, calling him “a great fighter” and “a great guy.” “Then I called Pakistan. I said, we’re not going to do trade with you because you’re fighting with India and you know, two nuclear nations. And they said, no, no, no, you should let us fight. They both said that,” he added.

Trump claimed that the leaders of both India and Pakistan called him after two days and stopped fighting.

“After literally two days, they called up, they said, we understand, and they stopped fighting. How is that? Isn’t that amazing? Now, you think Biden would have done that?” Trump said.

Earlier in Tokyo, speaking at a reception and dinner with business leaders on Tuesday, Trump said: “Seven planes were shot down, seven brand new, beautiful planes were shot down, and they were going at it … two big nuclear powers.” He added that he told Modi — “a very nice man, a very good man, and the Field Marshal over in Pakistan, I said, ‘Look, we’re not going to do any trade if you’re going to be fighting,’” Trump said.

Trump said that India and Pakistan argued that war has nothing to do with trade with the US.

“(They said) one thing has nothing to do with the other. I said this, it has a lot to do with the other …two nuclear powers…we get that nuclear dust all over the place. All of you are affected, right? And we said, No, we’re not doing any deals if you’re going to fight. And within about 24 hours, that was the end of that. It was amazing, actually,” the US President said.

India has always maintained that the US played no role in the ceasefire, and Pakistan had reached out to India for the pause of military action. Delhi has also described the US imposition of 50 pc tariffs as “unfair, unjustified and unreasonable”.