WASHINGTON, May 09, US vice-president JD Vance has said that the
US will not intervene in the conflict between Pakistan and India,
calling fighting between the two nuclear powers “fundamentally none of
our business”.
The remarks came during an interview with Fox News show “The Story with
Martha MacCallum,” where the US vice-president said that the US would
seek to de-escalate the conflict but could force neither side to “lay
down their arms”.
“We want this thing to de-escalate as quickly as possible. We can’t
control these countries, though,” Vance said.
“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 war that’s
fundamentally none of our business and has nothing to do with America’s
ability to control it,” Vance said during the interview. As the US could
force neither side to lay down their arms, he continued, the country
would “continue to pursue this thing through diplomatic channels”.
“Our hope and our expectation is that this is not going to spiral into a
broader regional war or, God forbid, a nuclear conflict,” Vance said.
“Right now, we don’t think that’s going to happen.”
The remarks match Donald Trump’s “America first” foreign policy of
calling for a retreat from the US role as a mediator in foreign
conflicts. Trump and Vance have both warned that the United States is
willing to walk away from an attempt to broker a ceasefire in Russia’s
invasion of Ukraine if the two sides cannot be led to hold direct talks.
India on Thursday evening said that it had thwarted missile and drone
strikes launched by Pakistan in what would mark the latest round of
tit-for-tat attacks between the two countries. Indian missile strikes on
Pakistan in the early hours of Wednesday killed 31 people. India claimed
that it was targeting “terrorist infrastructure”, while Pakistan denied
that any terrorist groups had been operating in the areas hit by Indian
missiles.
As Vance signaled the US continued intent to take a diminished role in
mediating conflicts abroad, secretary of state Marco Rubio spoke with
leaders of both countries and called for an “immediate de-escalation” in
the fighting. The Iranian and Saudi foreign ministers also flew into
Delhi on Thursday.
Vance, who has played a significant role in foreign policy in the new
Trump administration, traveled to India last month, where he said that
India could retaliate against “terrorists” in Pakistan but said the US
did not want that to spiral into a broader regional conflict.
“Our hope here is that India responds to this terrorist attack in a way
that doesn’t lead to a broader regional conflict,” Vance said, referring
to a recent militant attack in Kashmir. “And we hope, frankly, that
Pakistan, to the extent that they’re responsible, cooperates with India
to make sure that the terrorists sometimes operating in their territory
are hunted down and dealt with