ISTANBUL

US President Donald Trump said Tuesday that seven aircraft were downed during the short military escalation between Pakistan and India in May.

Trump told business leaders in Japan that many of the conflicts he prevented were due to tariffs he imposed on countries, and he had done “a great service to the world."

“If you look at India and Pakistan, they were going at it,” said Trump. “Seven brand new, beautiful planes were shot down.”

He said he told Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, whom he called a “very nice man, a very good man,” and Pakistani Field Marshal Asim Munir that "we’re not going to do any trade if you’re going to be fighting.”

“We said, No, we’re not doing any deals if you’re going to be fighting, and within 24 hours that was the end of that. It was amazing, actually,” he said. “I think trade is responsible for 70% of the fact that we didn’t have wars by using our heads.”

The two nuclear-armed South Asian nations engaged in a four-day skirmish, which ended with a ceasefire announced May 10 by Trump.​​​​​​​