(MENAFN) US President Donald Trump expressed optimism on Monday that Pakistan and India will maintain peaceful relations, saying the two South Asian neighbors are “going to live very nicely together.”

The statement came during the signing ceremony of the Gaza ceasefire declaration in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, where Trump participated alongside several world leaders.

“India is a great country with a very good friend of mine at the top and he's just done a fantastic job. I think Pakistan and India are going to live very nicely together,” Trump said.

Standing behind the US president at the event, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif praised Trump’s mediation efforts and described him as a “man of peace.”

“Today again I want to nominate the great president for the Nobel Peace Prize because he has not only brought peace in South Asia but saved millions of lives,” Sharif said. “I would like to salute you for your exemplary leadership and I think the world will remember you as the man who went out of his way and stopped eight wars.”

Tensions between India and Pakistan flared earlier this year after a terrorist attack in India’s Jammu and Kashmir region killed 26 civilians. New Delhi responded with airstrikes inside Pakistan, triggering a brief military confrontation before both sides announced a ceasefire.

Before India publicly confirmed the truce, Trump claimed on social media that a peace deal had already been reached after a “long night of talks” led by Washington. Indian officials, however, have denied that the US played a direct role in mediating the agreement.

Trump has also asserted that he warned both nations of possible US trade tariffs if hostilities continued — a claim likewise rejected by New Delhi.

Several American officials have echoed Trump’s account, saying Washington’s trade leverage played a key role in halting the conflict. In testimony earlier this year, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told a US trade court that the India-Pakistan ceasefire “was only achieved after President Trump interceded and offered both nations trading access with the United States to avert a full-scale war.”

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