Washington: US President Donald Trump on Friday (local time) reiterated his long-standing claim of having “solved” eight global conflicts — including the May escalation between India and Pakistan — while expressing confidence in ending the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, which he described as his “number nine.”
During a bilateral lunch with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House, Trump once again credited himself with defusing tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.
“I solved eight wars. Go to Rwanda and the Congo, talk about India and Pakistan… Look at all the wars that we solved,” Trump said.
“The Prime Minister of Pakistan said I saved millions of lives… Look at Pakistan and India as an example. That would have been a bad one — two nuclear nations,” he added.
Trump’s reference to India and Pakistan relates to the escalation in May following India’s Operation Sindoor — a series of precision strikes on nine terrorist camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK) — conducted in response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 civilians.
Criticising previous US administrations for “starting wars instead of ending them,” Trump said, “To the best of my knowledge, we’ve never had a president who solved one war. Not one. Bush started a war. Many of them did. They didn’t settle it. But I saved tens of millions of lives.”
Trump has repeatedly claimed that his administration helped de-escalate tensions between India and Pakistan, suggesting that trade and tariffs gave the US leverage to prevent a larger conflict.
India, however, has consistently rejected such claims, maintaining that all issues with Pakistan — including those related to Jammu and Kashmir — are strictly bilateral and do not involve any third party.
Turning to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Trump expressed optimism about achieving peace. “This will be number nine… We are going to have success with this (Ukraine) war,” he said. “That’s an easy one for me to solve if I have to.”
He also referred to the ongoing conflict between Pakistan and Afghanistan, saying it could be resolved swiftly under his leadership, while emphasising that his primary duty remained leading the United States.
“I love solving wars… You know why? I like stopping people from being killed, and I’ve saved millions and millions of lives,” Trump said.
Trump’s meeting with Zelenskyy followed an hour-long phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, during which, he claimed, “great progress” was made. He added that the two leaders are set to meet in Hungary in the coming weeks.
“President Putin and I will meet in an agreed-upon location — Budapest, Hungary — to see if we can bring this ‘inglorious’ war between Russia and Ukraine to an end,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
