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MIAMI: US President Donald Trump continues to rub more salt into India’s wound, as he now claims that eight warplanes were shot down in the Pakistan-India conflict in May. Donald Trump repeated his claim of brokering peace between Pakistan and India, revising his count of fighter jets downed during the combat from seven to eight. The two nuclear-armed nations “made peace” in May only after he threatened to cancel their trade deals, he said, reiterating his claim at the America Business Forum in Miami. The US president asserted that the actual number was eight aircraft, and claimed that he helped prevent a nuclear conflict between the two countries through tariff diplomacy. He said the eighth plane was badly wounded. “During the Pakistan-India war, I heard reports — some newspapers said seven or eight planes were downed. One wrote that seven were destroyed and one was damaged. I won’t name any paper — most of them spread fake news,” President Trump told the Business Forum. The India-Pakistan war was among the eight conflicts that the US President said to have stopped since taking office, besides Kosovo-Serbia and Congo-Rwanda, as he tried again to portray himself as a global peacemaker. “I was in the midst of a trade deal with India and Pakistan, and then I read on the front page of a certain newspaper...I heard they were going to war. Seven planes were shot down, and the eighth was badly wounded. Eight planes were shot down essentially. I said, this is war, and they are going at it. They are two nuclear nations. I said, ‘I’m not going to make any trade deals with you guys unless you agree to peace,’” said Trump. The President claimed Delhi and Islamabad opposed such a threat and said their conflict had nothing to do with trade deals.
