US V-P J.D. Vance says war between India and Pakistan will be ‘none of our business’

WASHINGTON – US Vice-President J.D. Vance said on May 8 that India and Pakistan should de-escalate tensions, but he added that the US cannot control the nuclear-armed Asian neighbours and a war between them would be “none of our business”.

“We want this thing to de-escalate as quickly as possible. We can’t control these countries, though,” Mr Vance said in an interview on Fox News.

“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,” he added.

India is an important partner for Washington, which aims to counter China’s rising influence, while Pakistan remains a US ally despite its diminished importance after Washington’s withdrawal from neighbouring Afghanistan in 2021.

Analysts and some former officials have said US involvement to achieve diplomatic goals in Russia’s war in Ukraine and Israel’s war in Gaza may make Washington leave India and Pakistan on their own in the early days of their tensions, without much direct pressure from the US government.

Pakistan and India

accused each other of launching drone attacks

, and Islamabad’s defence minister said on the second day of major clashes on May 8 that further retaliation was “increasingly certain”.

Two days of fighting have killed nearly four dozen people.

The latest escalation in the decades-old India-Pakistan rivalry began on April 22 when

Islamist militants killed 26 people

in India-administered Kashmir in an attack that New Delhi blamed on Islamabad, which denied the accusations and called for a neutral probe.

“Our hope, and our expectation, is that this is not going to spiral into a broader regional war or, God forbid, a nuclear conflict,” Mr Vance said on May 8.

Washington has held regular talks with both in recent days, including on May 8 when Secretary of State Marco Rubio held calls with Pakistan’s prime minister and India’s foreign minister while

urging them to de-escalate

and have direct dialogue.

US President Donald Trump called the rising tensions a shame. On May 7, he said he hoped the two countries would stop now after going “tit for tat”.

The State Department urged both countries to work towards what Washington terms as a “responsible solution”. REUTERS