United States President Donald Trump on Thursday reiterated his claim that he “sure as hell helped settle” the tensions between India and Pakistan, which he said was “getting more and more hostile” and close to seeing “missiles of a different type”.

“I hope I don't walk out of here and two days later find out that it is not settled, but I think it is settled,” he said while addressing US military personnel in Qatar. “And we talked to them about trade. Let's do trade instead of war. And Pakistan was very happy with that and India was very happy with that and I think they are on the way.”

He further claimed that the conflict between the two countries has been going on “for about a thousand years”.

Since May 10, this is the sixth time that Trump has claimed that the US brokered the ceasefire between India and Pakistan – an assertion that India has pushed back against.

India has maintained that “the issue of trade did not come up” in any discussion between Indian and US leaders.

Besides, India’s External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal on Tuesday also said military action from India’s side was “entirely in the conventional domain” in response to Trump’s speculation about nuclear war.

On Saturday, Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri announced the decision to stop military action minutes after Trump claimed on social media that India and Pakistan had agreed to the ceasefire. The US president had claimed that the ceasefire talks were mediated by Washington.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had claimed on social media that New Delhi and Islamabad had agreed to “start talks on a broad set of issues at a neutral site”.

However, the Indian Ministry of Information and Broadcast had said that the decision to stop the firing was “worked out directly between the two countries”.

“There is no decision to hold talks on any other issue at any other place,” the ministry added.

The tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad had escalated on May 7 when the Indian military carried out strikes – codenamed Operation Sindoor – on what it claimed were terrorist camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

The strikes were in response to the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam, which killed 26 persons on April 22.

The Pakistan Army retaliated to Indian strikes by repeatedly shelling Indian villages along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir. At least 22 Indian civilians and eight defence personnel were killed.

Pakistan claims 11 of its military personnel and 40 civilians were killed.

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