THE HAGUE – US President Donald Trump has once again praised Chief of Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir for averting a nuclear war with India.
Trump made the remarks while addressing a press conference in The Hague following the Nato Summit where he also highlighted his efforts to ease tensions across the globe.
At one point, he said the most important of these global conflicts was May’s war threat between India and Pakistan.
“And that was not whether or not they may someday have nukes, like we are talking about the Middle East, like we are talking about with Israel and Iran. This is — they have nuclear weapons,” President Trump said.
Talking about the conflict between Pakistan and India, he said: “I ended that with a series of phone calls on trade. I said, ‘Look, if you are going to be fighting each other…’ It was getting very bad — you know how bad that last attack was. It was very bad. If you are really going to go fighting with each other, we are not going to do any trade.’ They said, ‘No, no. No, you have to do a trade deal’.”
While referring to his recent meeting with Field Marshal Asim Munir, Trump also praised Pakistan Army chief, saying: “In fact, I had the general — he was really very impressive — the general from Pakistan was in my office last week. You know Prime Minister Modi is a great friend of mine. He is a great gentleman. He is a great man. And I got them to reason. I said, ‘We are not doing any trade deal if you are going to be fighting. And if you are going to be fighting each other, we are not doing any trade deal’.”
“And you know what? They said, ‘No, I want to do a trade deal.’ And we stopped the nuclear war,” he concluded.
The remarks made by the US president clearly highlighted the role played by COAS Asim Munir to ease regional tensions.
It is recalled that Trump had earlier described Munir as “an exceptional human being and an inspiring personality.”
The US president’s statement of playing a key role in averting nuclear war in South Asia is not acknowledged by India as it has been asserted that New Delhi acted independently during the May conflict.
However, Pakistan has been hailing Trump for helping calm tensions in the region.
