New York/Washington: US President Donald Trump has brokered several peace deals, including the “very dangerous ones like India and Pakistan”, and deserves “tremendous credit” for reshaping America’s foreign policy, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said. During a Cabinet meeting at the White House on Tuesday, Rubio said for the first time in decades, American foreign policy was guided solely by whether it made the US “safer, stronger and more prosperous”.
“If it is, he’s (Trump) for it. If it doesn’t, he’s against it. And that sort of clarity is transformational,” he said.
“Not to mention all the other peace deals, very dangerous ones like India and Pakistan or Cambodia and Thailand, and so on… Mr President, I think you deserve tremendous credit for the transformational aspect of our foreign policy,” Rubio said.
Earlier, at the Cabinet meeting, Trump repeated his claim that he had resolved several global conflicts, including between India and Pakistan, as he asserted that he should get the Nobel Peace Prize for each of the “eight wars” he has ended.
“We ended eight wars… But we’re going to do one more, I think, I hope,” Trump said, referring to the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Trump has repeatedly claimed that within the first eight-nine months of his second term in the White House, he resolved conflicts between India and Pakistan, Thailand and Cambodia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, Kosovo and Serbia, Israel and Iran, Egypt and Ethiopia, Rwanda and Congo. He also credits himself for resolving the Israel-Hamas conflict.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Monday that Trump will host Congo President Felix Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo and Rwanda President Paul Kagame to sign a “historic peace and economic agreement” brokered by the US president.
Since May 10, when Trump announced on social media that India and Pakistan had agreed to a “full and immediate” ceasefire after a “long night” of talks mediated by Washington, he has repeated his claim over 60 times that he “helped settle” the tensions between the two neighbours.
New Delhi has consistently denied any third-party intervention.
India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7, targeting terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in retaliation for the April 22 Pahalgam attack that killed 26 civilians.
India and Pakistan reached an understanding on May 10 to end the conflict after four days of intense cross-border drone and missile strikes.