ISLAMABAD: President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he had used US trade ties to persuade nuclear-armed neighbors India and Pakistan to back off from their worst military confrontation in decades earlier this month, a claim New Delhi has previously rejected. 

Following a May 10 understanding reached between India and Pakistan in what was a US-mediated ceasefire to stop military action on land, in the air and at sea, Trump has repeatedly said he had offered to help both the nations with trade if they agreed to de-escalate.

Pakistan has not commented specifically on the trade-related claim though it has repeatedly thanked Trump for his role in the de-escalation efforts. The Indian government has, however, said trade concessions did not come up in discussions to secure the ceasefire. 

“If you take a look at what we just did with Pakistan and India, we settled that whole thing, and I think I settled it through trade,” Trump said in televised comments during a meeting at the White House with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. 

“We’re doing a big deal with India. We’re doing a big deal with Pakistan,” the US president added, without giving details of what agreements he was referring to. 

Before the ceasefire, the militaries of India and Pakistan were engaged in one of their most serious confrontations in decades since May 7, when India struck targets inside Pakistan it said were affiliated with militants responsible for the killing of 26 tourists last month in Indian-administered Kashmir.

After India’s strikes in Pakistan, both sides exchanged heavy fire along their de facto border, followed by missile and drone strikes into each other’s territories, mainly targeting military installations and air bases.

The escalating hostilities threatened regional peace, leading to calls by world leaders to cool down tempers.

Trump has said he not only helped mediate the ceasefire but also offered mediation over the simmering dispute in Kashmir, a Himalayan region that both India and Pakistan claim in entirety but govern in part. The two nations have fought two wars over Kashmir, which has long been described as the regional nuclear flashpoint.

New Delhi has rejected Trump’s offer for mediation, saying Kashmir was a bilateral issue, while Pakistan has welcomed the offer. 

With inputs from AP