U.S. Vice President JD Vance on Thursday said that America is not going to get involved in a war that is "fundamentally none of our business", adding that the US can encourage the two nuclear-armed neighbours to de-escalate.
Vance quoted US President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio who said that the U.S. wants the tensions to "de-escalate" as quickly as possible.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance on Thursday said that America is not going to get involved in a war that is "fundamentally none of our business", adding that the US can encourage the two nuclear-armed neighbours to de-escalate.
"Look, we're concerned about any time nuclear powers collide and have a major conflict," Vance said about the escalation between India and Pakistan, as per PTI
Vance quoted US President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio who said that the U.S. wants the tensions to "de-escalate" as quickly as possible, PTI reported.
"We can't control these countries though. Fundamentally, India has its gripes with Pakistan. Pakistan has responded to India. What we can do is try to encourage these folks to de-escalate a little bit," PTI quoted the vice president. “But we're not going to get involved in the middle of war that's fundamentally none of our business and has nothing to do with America's ability to control it,” he added.
He mentioned that America cannot tell the Indians or Pakistanis to lay down their arms, “so we're going to continue to pursue this thing through diplomatic channels.”
He said that they hope that this is not going to spiral into a broader regional war or, “God forbid, a nuclear conflict, but sure, we're worried about these things.”
"But I think the job of diplomacy, but also the job of cooler heads in India and Pakistan is to make sure this doesn't become a nuclear war. If it happened of course it would be disastrous. Right now we don't think that's going to happen," he said.
Marco Rubio, the United States Secretary of State, spoke to India's External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif separately, emphasising the need for immediate de-escalation between India and Pakistan.
Rubio, when talking to Jaishankar over the phone, expressed the United States’ support for direct dialogue between India and Pakistan, PTI reported; reiterating his condolences for the Pahalgam terrorist attack.
In a separate conversation with Sharif, Rubio reiterated his calls for Pakistan to take concrete steps to end any support for terrorist groups, PTI reported.
Vance was visiting India with his wife - who is of Indian origin - and their three children when the April 22 Pahalgam attack happened - killing at least 26 civilians in Baisaran valley of Jammu and Kashmir.
As a retaliation to that, India launched ‘Operation Sindoor’ on Wednesday, targeting terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in the early hours of May 7.
On Thursday night, PTI reported that India neutralised Pakistan military's attempt to hit military stations in Jammu, Pathankot, Udhampur and other locations with missiles and drones.