KARACHI: Pakistan continues to remain in Donald Trump’s good books, while the US president reserves critical words for India.

This was evident from his remarks at the latest Oval Office presser, while he referenced his displeasure with New Delhi over its continued purchases of Russian oil.

However, Trump said that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had “reassured him” that they would stop buying oil from Russia, a move the US president described as “a big step” in efforts to isolate Moscow economically.

“So I was not happy that India was buying oil, and [Modi] assured me today that they will not be buying oil from Russia,” Trump told reporters during a White House event. He said that this would be “easy compared to what we did in last couple of weeks in the Middle East”, referencing the recent Gaza ceasefire and subsequent summit that saw his plan for peace being ratified by several stakeholders.

“That’s a big step. Now were going to get China to do the same thing,” he said, talking about stopping the purchases of Russian oil.

President Trump also referenced the May conflict between Pakistan and India, reiterating for the umpteenth time that seven jets were shot down. He also recalled PM Shehbaz Sharif’s kind words.

“[The] prime minister of Pakistan got up the other day and said so beautifully ‘you saved millions of lives’… I think he was referring [to what] would have been with India a nuclear war, it was getting very close and you know the seven planes, seven aircraft were shot.”

Published in Dawn, October 16th, 2025