- The US president says he ended eight wars in eight months.
- Trump says he can resolve the Pakistan-Afghanistan conflict ‘nicely’.
- Adding saving millions of lives is his greatest achievement.
US President Donald Trump on Sunday said he would “quickly resolve” the Pakistan-Afghanistan conflict, praising Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Field Marshal Asim Munir as “great people”.
Trump made the remarks while speaking at the signing ceremony of a peace agreement between Thailand and Cambodia on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit in Kuala Lumpur.
Border crossings between the two countries have remained closed since October 11, following clashes earlier this month that killed dozens on both sides in the worst fighting since the Taliban took over Kabul in 2021.
The border clashes were sparked after Islamabad demanded that Kabul control militants who attack Pakistan across their shared border, saying they were operating from sanctuaries in Afghanistan. A ceasefire was agreed at talks held by Qatar and Turkiye last weekend and is holding between the two sides.
During the second round of talks in Istanbul, Pakistan has handed over a comprehensive anti-terror plan to the Afghan Taliban, sources say.
Referring to recent border tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan, Trump said he was confident of helping the two sides reach peace.
“… we’re averaging one a month. There’s only one left, although I heard Pakistan and Afghanistan have started up. But I’ll get it done very quickly. I know them both. And the Field Marshal and the Prime Minister are great people and I’ve no doubt we’ll get it done quickly.”
The US president further said that he considered peace-building a priority. “If I can take time and save millions of lives, that’s a really big thing,” he noted, adding that unlike other presidents, he focused on ending wars rather than starting them.
“I can’t think of any president who has ever solved a war. They start wars. They don’t solve them,” he added.
Meanwhile, the leaders of Thailand and Cambodia signed an improved ceasefire agreement on Sunday in the presence of Trump, whose intervention in their bitter border dispute earned him a Nobel Peace Prize nomination.
The agreement builds on a ceasefire signed three months ago after Trump called the two countries’ then-leaders and urged them to end hostilities or risk their respective trade talks with Washington being put on hold.
Both sides blame each other for starting the five-day exchange of rockets and heavy artillery, which killed at least 48 people and temporarily displaced an estimated 300,000 people in their worst fighting in recent history.
