US Vice President: India-Pakistan War Is Not Our Business

JAKARTA - United States (US) Vice President JD Vance said India and Pakistan should ease tensions. But Vance insists the US cannot control neighboring Asian countries with nuclear weapons.

"We want this to subside as soon as possible. However, we cannot control these countries," Vance said in an interview on Fox News as reported by Reuters on Friday, May 9.

"What we can do is try to encourage these people to ease tensions a little bit, but we will not engage in a war that is basically none of our business and has nothing to do with America's ability to control it."

India is an important partner for Washington aiming to counter China's growing influence.

Meanwhile, Pakistan remains an ally of the US despite its reduced interests after Washington withdrew from Afghanistan's neighboring countries in 2021.

Analysts and some former officials say US involvement in achieving diplomatic goals in Russia's war in Ukraine and Israel's war in Gaza could see Washington leave India and Pakistan alone in the early days of their tensions, without much direct pressure from the US government.

Pakistan and India accused each other of launching a drone strike, and Islamabad's defense minister said further retaliation "in the run-up," on the second day of major clashes on Thursday. Two days of fighting killed dozens of people.

The latest escalation in the decades-old India-Pakistan competition began on April 22 when Islamist militants killed 26 people in India-run operandi in an attack that New Delhi said was carried out by Islamabad, which denied the allegations and called for a neutral investigation.

"Our hope and expectations are that this will not turn into a wider regional war or, contrary, a nuclear conflict," Vance said on Thursday.

Washington has held regular talks with the two in recent days, including on Thursday when Foreign Minister Marco Rubio made phone calls with Pakistan's prime minister and Indian foreign ministers while urging them to ease tensions and have direct dialogue.

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump called rising tensions a shame. On Wednesday, Trump said he hoped the two countries would stop now after "revenge each other."

The State Department urged the two countries to work together towards what Washington calls "an responsible solution."