The United States wants India-Pakistan standoff to de-escalate quickly but it cannot control the two countries and will not be involved in a war between the two South Asian nuclear powers that is “none of our business,” Vice President J.D. Vance said amid fears of a dangerous exacerbation in the region.
Vance, who recently returned from a visit to India, spoke to Fox News as New Delhi and Islamabad carried out aerial strikes and some heavy shelling across the Line of Control in Kashmir, where a terror attack on April 22 spiraled the tensions.
Washington has high-stakes ties with both countries in the consequential strategic region that houses more than one fourth of humanity, a bludgeoning economic market and where three nuclear-armed neighbors China, India and Pakistan have unresolved border disputes.
“What we can do is try to encourage these folks to de-escalate a little bit, but we’re not going to get involved in the middle of a war that’s fundamentally none of our business and has nothing to do with America’s ability to control it,” Vance said.
“We want this thing to de-escalate as quickly as possible. We can’t control these countries, though,” the Vice President told the channel.
On Friday, Pakistan reported another series of Indian missile strikes.
On Thursday, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif told America’s top diplomat Marco Rubio that Pakistan reserved the right to act in self-defense under Article 51 of UN Charter governing the relations between world countries.
The United States has been calling upon New Delhi and Islamabad to find a “responsible solution” to the ongoing conflict.
President Donald Trump, who has citied close relationship with both countries, has in recent days offered to mediate, and called for cessation of clashes that have seen several dozen civilian deaths.
The attack by unknown gunmen in Pahalgam area of Indian-administered Kashmir killed 26 people on April 22 while India’s missile attacks on Pakistani cities have killed more than 30 people and injured several others. India alleged that Pakistan was behind the attack. Islamabad rejected the allegation as baseless.
In the interview with Fox News, Vance said, “Our hope, and our expectation, is that this is not going to spiral into a broader regional war or, God forbid, a nuclear conflict.”
Successive U.S. Administrations have eyed India as a potential counterweight to a rising China while the U.S. considers Pakistan a major non-NATO ally and a key partner in counterterrorism since September 11, 2001 attacks.
While India has advanced economically in the last few decades to position itself as a major power in the making, Pakistan faces economic challenges but remains critical to U.S. goal of security and efforts against terrorist threat emanating particularly from Afghanistan.
On Thursday Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke to Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Indian External Affairs Minister Subramaniam Jaishankar and urged the two countries to immediately tamp down their hostilities.
India and Pakistan both control parts of Kashmir and claim the entire Himalayan region in entirety. The region is considered a lifeline for agrarian economies of the two countries as rivers flowing downstream to Jammu and Pakistan’s Punjab province snake through it.
