Trump Claims He Stopped India-Pakistan Conflict During Operation Sindoor; India Rejects Any US Mediation

US President Donald Trump has again insisted that personal diplomacy with Pakistan and India prevented a disaster during Operation Sindoor, claiming Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif privately told Trump that 35 million people would have died if Trump had not intervened.

New Delhi has earlier dismissed any suggestion that Trump acted as a mediator in the four-day conflict. When reporters asked about United States involvement, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar replied that the US "was in the United States." Indian officials have repeated that position since the operation.

Donald Trump Operation Sindoor claim and India-Pakistan 'nuclear war’ warning

Trump referred to the crisis while presenting a list of what Trump described as foreign policy successes from his first presidential term. "In my first 10 months, I ended eight wars... Pakistan and India would have had a nuclear war. 35 million people, said the Prime Minister of Pakistan, would have died if it were not for my involvement," he said.

According to Indian accounts, the fighting stopped through direct military talks, not foreign mediation. Officials in New Delhi say Pakistan’s Director General of Military Operations called the Indian DGMO on the hotline. That appeal led to India pausing the offensive, which Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri described as a "ceasefire understanding," reached between the two sides.

Donald Trump Operation Sindoor claim and background to the Pahalgam terror attack

The confrontation followed a terror strike in Pahalgam on April 22 last year that killed 26 tourists. India blamed Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed networks operating from Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. On May 7, India launched Operation Sindoor, targeting what New Delhi called terror infrastructure across the Line of Control.

Trump’s latest remarks came during Trump’s first State of the Union address of Trump’s second term. Trump told lawmakers that eight different conflicts were settled in the first 10 months in office. Trump repeated the claim about stopping an India-Pakistan "nuclear war" but added the detailed casualty figure for the first time.

During the address, Trump listed several disputes Trump said were defused through United States engagement. The list covered West Asia, Africa, Europe and Asia, and placed Operation Sindoor alongside long-running global flashpoints involving Israel, Iran and other countries.

Conflict partners	Trump’s claimed role
Israel and Hamas	Ending a war
Israel and Iran	Ending a war
Egypt and Ethiopia	Ending a war
India and Pakistan (Operation Sindoor)	Preventing "nuclear war"
Serbia and Kosovo	Ending a war
Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo	Ending a war
Armenia and Azerbaijan	Ending a war
Cambodia and Thailand	Ending a war

Trump’s statement has created fresh discomfort in Islamabad. Pakistan had nominated Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize last year, crediting Trump’s role in halting Operation Sindoor. Pakistani authorities then praised Trump’s "diplomatic intervention," which it claimed helped stop the war, but now face questions about the new casualty figure mentioned.

With Trump repeating the Operation Sindoor story and India firmly rejecting any third-party role, the two narratives remain sharply opposed. The only broad agreement between New Delhi, Islamabad and Washington is that the Pahalgam attack, and the retaliatory strikes that followed, pushed India and Pakistan into another dangerous confrontation.