Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has recalled the four-day military confrontation between India and Pakistan in May 2025, claiming that United States President Donald Trump’s timely intervention prevented the crisis from escalating into an all-out war.

Sharif made the remarks while addressing the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York on Friday, local time.

He referred to the confrontation that followed India’s launch of Operation Sindoor in response to the Pahalgam terror attack of 22 April 2025.

The attack claimed the lives of 26 civilians after terrorists targeted visitors in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir. Indian authorities and official statements have linked the attack to Pakistan-based terrorist networks.

India subsequently launched Operation Sindoor, targeting what it described as terrorist infrastructure connected with the Pahalgam attack.

Sharif described Pakistan as having faced what he called external aggression from India under a false pretext.

He said Pakistan had exercised its ‘inherent right of self-defence’ under Article 51 of the United Nations Charter during the ensuing tensions.

Sharif also praised Pakistan’s armed forces for their conduct during the confrontation.

“Our brave and valiant armed forces, under the courageous leadership of Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir, responded with precision and professionalism,” he said.

He claimed that Pakistan’s forces had ‘silenced the enemy’, repulsed India’s attack and taught it a lesson that would not be forgotten. 

The Pakistani Prime Minister presented the May 2025 crisis as a moment when the two nuclear-armed neighbours had come close to a much wider conflict.

In a flagrant attempt to brown-nose Trump, he credited President Trump with intervening at what he described as a decisive juncture.

“His timely intervention came at a decisive juncture when two nuclear-armed neighbours stood at the brink of an all-out war,” Sharif said.

He added that the scale of devastation could have been far greater if Trump had not acted with ‘clarity of thought and action’.

Sharif said South Asian countries must ensure that the region never again reaches such a dangerous precipice.

During his speech, he also praised Trump’s leadership and attributed to him a role in helping save a very large number of lives in South Asia. Recent reports on the speech said Sharif described Trump’s intervention as having saved hundreds of millions of lives.

The remarks revived a continuing disagreement between Pakistan and India over how the May 2025 cessation of military action was achieved.

Pakistan has repeatedly credited Trump and the United States with helping bring the confrontation to an end.

Trump has also publicly claimed that Washington helped secure a ceasefire between India and Pakistan after communicating with both sides. Public accounts, however, distinguish between diplomatic contact or pressure and formal third-party mediation.

New Delhi has consistently rejected the claim that the United States mediated the ceasefire.

India’s stated position is that the cessation of hostilities was reached through direct communication between the Directors General of Military Operations of the two countries.

According to India’s account, Pakistan’s DGMO contacted his Indian counterpart, after which both sides agreed to stop firing and military action.

India has also maintained that no trade agreement or other arrangement with the United States was linked to the cessation.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi reportedly told President Trump that the decision was reached directly through established military channels and that India does not accept third-party mediation.

This difference in interpretation remains central to the diplomatic narrative surrounding the May 2025 confrontation.

Islamabad highlights Trump’s intervention and the role of American diplomatic engagement.

New Delhi, by contrast, maintains that the military-to-military channel between India and Pakistan produced the cessation and that no outside power brokered the agreement.

Sharif’s address also returned to Pakistan’s longstanding position on Kashmir.

He argued that a just and fair settlement of the Kashmir issue was necessary to prevent another crisis in South Asia. Reports on the speech said he linked the Kashmir question to his warning that the region must not again approach the brink of war.

The speech therefore combined Pakistan’s account of the May 2025 conflict, praise for its armed forces, criticism of India’s actions and an appeal for international attention to Kashmir.

Sharif’s remarks came more than a year after the Pahalgam attack and the military operations that followed it. The exchange of fire in May 2025 involved two countries with nuclear weapons and generated international concern over the possibility of a broader confrontation.

Although the military confrontation ended with a cessation of hostilities, India and Pakistan continue to offer sharply different accounts of the events leading to it and the circumstances in which the fighting stopped.

ANI