NEW YORK  -  US President Donald Trump has said his talking to India and Pakistan and bringing them back from the brink is a “bigger success” than he’ll ever be given credit for, saying there was “great hatred” among the two nations and tensions got to a point where the next phase was probably “nuclear”.

“A bigger success than I’ll ever be given credit for. Those are major nuclear powers. Those are not like a little bit, and they were angry,” Trump said in an interview to Fox News on Friday.

Trump was asked about the “couple of foreign policy successes” before his trip to the Middle East, when he picked up the phone and called India and Pakistan. Trump replied, “I did, ya”. The interviewer said that was a success.

“And the next phase was probably, did you see where it was getting? It was tit for tat. It was getting deeper and more, I mean, more missiles, everyone was ‘stronger, stronger’, so to a point where the next one’s going to be, you know what? The N word. You know the N word is, right?” Trump asked the interviewer, to which he replied “nuclear.”

It’s the N word. That’s a very nasty word, right? In a lot of ways. The N word used in a nuclear sense, that’s the worst thing that can happen. And I think they were very close. The hatred was great. And I said, ‘We’re going to talk about trade. We’re going to do a lot of trade’,” Trump said.

When asked if the deal with India is coming soon, Trump said, “Yeah, that’ll come soon. I’m in no rush. Look, everybody wants to make a deal with us.” “South Korea wants to make a deal…but I’m not going to make deals with everybody. I’m just going to set the limit. I’ll make another some deals… because I can’t, you can’t meet with that many people. I’ve got 150 coun-tries that want to make deals,” Trump said.

Though the Fox News host wanted to move on to other topics, President Trump took a moment to mention his relations with Pakistan.

“I had a great conversation with Pakistan. You know, we cannot forget them. Because it does take two to tango. And with India, I felt very certain and with Pakistan, I also talked about trade. They would love to trade.”

Then he praised Pakistan and its people in a way that has pleasantly surprised diplomats around the world. And that is something Islamabad has long desired. After all, for the last few decades, the US-Pakistan relationship has revolved around antiterrorism cooperation but not trade.

“They are brilliant people. They make incredible products. And we don’t do much trade with them. And yet I have a good relationship. In fact, I told my people, call them up. Let’s start trading and meet-ing because I am a man of my word.”