Pakistan’s top military leader has lauded the US president for his role in preventing a potential nuclear conflict in South Asia.
According to Reuters, citing White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly, Pakistan’s Army chief, Asim Munir, has suggested that US President Donald Trump should receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts in averting a “nuclear war between India and Pakistan” the previous month. Kelly stated that Trump invited Munir to a private lunch meeting on Wednesday after the Pakistani field marshal advocated for the Nobel nomination, the report said.
Munir’s meeting with Trump marks the first time a sitting US president has met face-to-face with a Pakistani chief of army staff. Dawn newspaper notes that this is also the first instance of a serving Pakistani army chief being formally received at this level without holding political office or governing under martial law.
Trump told reporters after the meeting that Munir agreed with him. “He [Munir] agreed with me. The reason I had him here was that I wanted to thank him for not going into the war [with India],” Trump said. “And I want to thank [Indian] PM Modi as well, who just left a few days ago. We’re working on a trade deal with India and Pakistan. These two very smart people decided not to keep going with a war that could have been a nuclear war. Pakistan and India are two big nuclear powers.”
Prior to hosting Munir, the US president met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who reiterated India’s stance against third-party intervention in its relationship with Pakistan. The two South Asian countries experienced a military confrontation last month, triggered by India’s strikes on alleged terrorist facilities within Pakistani-controlled territories.
New Delhi justified the strikes as a response to a terrorist attack in Indian-administered Kashmir in April. The ended on May 10 with the announcement of a ceasefire. Trump has repeatedly claimed credit for the ceasefire, a claim that New Delhi disputes. The meeting between Trump and Munir occurred amidst ongoing tensions in the Middle East concerning the conflict between Israel and Iran.
Pakistan shares a border of over 600 miles with Iran and maintains positive diplomatic relations with Tehran. Trump told reporters that Pakistan possesses a deep understanding of Iran, possibly surpassing that of most countries, and is dissatisfied with the current situation. “It’s not that they’re bad with Israel. They know them both, actually, but they know Iran better,” he said.
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