WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump has said that 10 aircraft were shot down during last year’s military confrontation between India and Pakistan, raising his previous estimate of losses in the four-day conflict between the nuclear-armed neighbours.
Speaking in an interview with Fox Business aired on Wednesday, Trump again claimed he had prevented a potential nuclear war between the two countries by threatening trade tariffs.
“Like India and Pakistan — it would have been a nuclear war in my opinion. They were really going at it. Ten planes were shot down. They were going at it,” Trump said.
PRESIDENT TRUMP to @larry_kudlow: “The prime minister of Pakistan said ‘President Trump saved at least 10 million lives when he got us to stop fighting.’ Because they were gonna go nuclear, in my opinion. Without tariffs, that wouldn’t have happened.” pic.twitter.com/zdSmJmUgFW
— Fox News (@FoxNews) February 10, 2026
The US president has repeatedly referred to the May 2025 conflict in public remarks over the past 10 months.
He initially said five aircraft had been shot down, later revising the figure to seven and then eight. In his latest comments, he doubled the original number.
Trump did not specify whether the aircraft belonged to India or Pakistan.
However, Pakistani officials had earlier said their forces downed six Indian fighter jets, including French-made Rafale aircraft, as well as dozens of drones.
Tariffs and mediation claims
During the interview, Trump defended his use of tariffs as a diplomatic tool.
“I settled eight wars. Of the eight wars, at least six were settled because of tariffs,” he said.
“In other words, I said, ‘If you don’t settle this war, I’m going to charge you tariffs, because I don’t want to see people getting killed.’”
Referring to India and Pakistan, he said he warned that trade penalties would follow if hostilities continued.
“And they said, ‘Well, what does this have to do?’ I said, ‘You’re going to be charged,’” he added.
Trump also said that Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had credited him with helping avert millions of casualties.
“He actually said the other day that President Trump saved 10 million lives, maybe more,” Trump said.
Pakistan has publicly acknowledged Washington’s role in facilitating the ceasefire and has nominated Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize.
India, however, has not endorsed his claims that US pressure or tariff threats led to the truce.
May conflict between Pakistan and India
The latest conflict erupted in April 2025 after an attack on tourists in Indian Illegally Occupied Kashmir’s Pahalgam area. New Delhi blamed Islamabad for backing the assault.
Pakistan condemned the attack and strongly rejected the Indian allegations. Pakistan had repeatedly offered an independent and neutral international investigation into the incident. However, India failed to respond to Pakistan’s offer and continued with its aggressive posture.
On May 7, India launched unprovoked attacks on several Pakistani cities targeting civilian populations. Pakistan swiftly and forcefully responded to the Indian aggression.
The two sides exchanged air strikes, drone attacks and artillery fire in what was described as the most serious escalation in decades.
Pakistani officials said their forces downed six Indian fighter jets, including Rafale aircraft, as well as dozens of drones.
After roughly 87 hours of hostilities, a ceasefire was announced on May 10. Trump said at the time that the United States had helped broker the agreement.
Since the ceasefire, the US president has repeatedly cited the episode as an example of his conflict-resolution efforts.
At a December 2025 event at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida, he said Washington had prevented a “potential nuclear war” between the two countries.
“We stopped a potential nuclear war between Pakistan and India,” Trump said at the event, alongside senior US defence officials.
US relations with India and Pakistan
In September 2025, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif thanked Trump during an Oval Office meeting for the US mediation in ending the war.
India has maintained that the ceasefire resulted from direct military-to-military contacts and not external pressure.
Trump has also repeatedly praised Pakistan’s Chief of Defence Forces and Chief of the Army Staff, Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir, describing him in past remarks as a “highly respected general”.
