LONDON: US President Donald Trump repeated his claim at a press conference at Chequers, the UK PM’s official country retreat, that his intervention had stopped the brief India-Pakistan conflict earlier this year, a claim refuted umpteen times by India.Trump, speaking on the final day of his state visit to Britain, said he personally had stopped seven wars since coming to power. “Most were not thought to be settleable but we did India, we did Pakistan, two nuclear powers. That was purely for trade. We told them if you want to trade with us, you will have to get along, and they were going at it hot and heavy,” he said. He added he felt “let down” by Russian President Vladimir Putin that he could not add the war in Ukraine to that list.“If the price of oil comes down, Putin will have no choice but to drop out of that war,” he said as he and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer vowed to ramp up the pressure on Putin. “When I found out that the European nations were buying oil from Russia, I am very close to India and to the PM of India, I wished him a Happy Birthday the other day, we have a very good relationship, but I sanctioned them (India). I am willing to do other things, but not when the people I am fighting for are buying oil from Russia. That’s not playing fair with the USA,” he said.He also said the US is trying to get Bagram airbase back from Afghanistan as it is in a strategic position an hour away from where China makes nuclear weapons. “We were supposed to leave with strength and dignity and keep Bagram,” he said.On Gaza, Trump said he opposed a Palestinian state whilst Hamas still had Israeli hostages, calling it a point of disagreement with Starmer.The pair had earlier held bilateral talks, attended a business reception and toured the Winston Churchill Archives. Trump is a big Churchill fan.US tech and finance giants have announced £150 billion (Rs 17.2 lakh crore) in investments in the UK, creating 7,600 jobs to coincide with the state visit, including plans to build in the UK the largest AI supercomputer in Europe.The First Lady and Queen Camilla looked around Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House at Windsor Castle, the largest dolls’ house in the world, designed by Edwin Lutyens. It contains a fully stocked wine cellar, working lifts, running water and a miniature library with 200 original works hand-written by famous writers. Melania particularly liked “The Gruffalo”.At the state banquet on Wednesday, Trump hailed the British Empire laying the foundations of “law, liberty, free speech and individual rights virtually everywhere the Union Jack has ever flown”.“Together, we’ve done more good for humanity than any two countries in all of history,” he said.
