The United States again claimed that US President Donald Trump had facilitated peace between India and Pakistan at the height of a military standoff between the two neighbouring countries in May this year.

At a press conference on Friday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio listed President Trump’s initiatives in resolving conflicts between different nations around the world. "When it comes to the overall issue of peace, the President's committed to peace and committed to being the President of peace. And so, we saw when India and Pakistan went to war, we engaged directly, and the President was able to deliver on that peace," he added.

In the same statement, Rubio also mentioned the recent Cambodia-Thailand conflict and expressed hope that a peace agreement would soon be reached between Azerbaijan and Armenia. "...hopefully – we’re taping this here today, but on Friday of this week, we’ll be here to sign an agreement and the beginning of a peace deal there," Rubio said.

This was not the first time the US had claimed credit for helping to broker a truce between India and Pakistan. Since the two countries agreed to a ceasefire on May 10, President Trump had been making such claims, and New Delhi had consistently rejected them.

India had made it clear that the ceasefire agreement, which followed days of intense military conflict after the launch of Operation Sindoor on May 7, had been reached bilaterally without the involvement of any third party.

Islamabad, however, had acknowledged President Trump’s role in mediating the conflict and had repeatedly thanked him.

The latest comments by Marco Rubio came as India was assessing its next steps in trade and economic policy following President Trump’s announcement of a 50 per cent tariff on Indian imports.

While the 25 per cent tariffs announced earlier had already come into effect, the remaining tariffs were scheduled to take effect on August 27.