US President Donald Trump on Friday claimed at least five aircraft were downed during the recent India-Pakistan conflict, without identifying which country lost how many planes but leaving the Narendra Modi government facing questions.
Trump again repeated his claim of having leveraged trade to get the two countries to agree to a “ceasefire”.
The US President brought the subject up while telling Republican senators at the White House how his administration had stopped a lot of wars.
“You had India, Pakistan, that was going… in fact, planes were being shot out of the air… four or five. But I think five jets were shot down actually… that was getting worse and worse, wasn’t it?” he said.
“That was looking like it was going to go… these are two serious nuclear countries, and they were hitting each other….
“But India and Pakistan were going at it, and they were back and forth, and it was getting bigger and bigger. And we got it solved through trade.
“We said, ‘You guys want to make a trade deal. We are not making a trade deal if you are going to be throwing around weapons and maybe nuclear weapons’. Both very powerful nuclear states.”
Although Trump did not say which country or countries lost the jets, Rahul Gandhi demanded answers from Prime Minister Modi given that the government has not officially acknowledged any aircraft losses.
Only a couple of senior military officers have till now independently admitted the downing of some aircraft, without saying how many.
“Modiji, what is the truth of the five jets? Country has a right to know,” Rahul posted on X along with a clip of Trump’s comments.
As for Trump’s claim of mediation, the Congress said this was the 24th time the US President had made
the assertion.
India has maintained there was no mediation, referring to the longstanding consensus in the country against any third-party involvement in dealing with Pakistan. But these clarifications have not deterred Trump from repeating his claim.
Pakistan claims to have shot down three Rafales and two drones belonging to India on the first day (May 7) of Operation Sindoor, but India has not confirmed this.
Chief of Defence Staff Anil Chauhan told Reuters in June that India had lost fighter jets on the opening day but the numbers were not important.
Later, India’s defence attaché to Indonesia said in Jakarta that India did lose some aircraft in the initial stages because of the government’s instruction not to hit Pakistani military establishments and air defences.