US in touch with India and Pakistan; urges work toward solution

28/4/2025 6:01

The U.S. State

Department said on Sunday Washington was in touch with both

India and Pakistan while urging them to work towards what it

called a "responsible solution" as tensions have risen between

the two Asian nations following a recent Islamist militant

attack in Kashmir.



In public, the U.S. government has expressed support for

India after the attack but has not criticized Pakistan. India

blamed Pakistan for the April 22 attack in Indian-administered

Kashmir that killed over two dozen people. Pakistan denies

responsibility and called for a neutral probe.



"This is an evolving situation and we are monitoring

developments closely. We have been in touch with the governments

of India and Pakistan at multiple levels," a U.S. State

Department spokesperson told Reuters in an emailed statement.



"The United States encourages all parties to work together

towards a responsible resolution," the spokesperson added.



The State Department spokesperson also said Washington

"stands with India and strongly condemns the terrorist attack in

Pahalgam," reiterating comments similar to recent ones made by

President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance.



India is an increasingly important U.S. partner as

Washington aims to counter China's rising influence in Asia

while Pakistan remains a U.S. ally even as its importance for

Washington has diminished after the 2021 U.S. withdrawal from

neighboring Afghanistan.



Michael Kugelman, a Washington-based South Asia analyst and

writer for the Foreign Policy magazine, said India is now a much

closer U.S. partner than Pakistan.



"This may worry Islamabad that if India retaliates

militarily, the U.S. may sympathize with its counter-terrorism

imperatives and not try to stand in the way," Kugelman told

Reuters.



Kugelman also said that given Washington's involvement and

ongoing diplomatic efforts in Russia's war in Ukraine and

Israel's war in Gaza, the Trump administration is "dealing with

a lot on its global plate" and may leave India and Pakistan on

their own, at least in the early days of the tensions.



Hussain Haqqani, a former Pakistan ambassador to the U.S.

and a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute think tank, also

said that there seemed to be no U.S. appetite to calm the

situation at this moment.



"India has a longstanding grievance about terrorism

emanating or supported from across border. Pakistan has a

longstanding belief that India wants to dismember it. Both work

themselves into a frenzy every few years. This time there is no

U.S. interest in calming things down," Haqqani said.







ESCALATING TENSIONS



Muslim-majority Kashmir is claimed in full by both

Hindu-majority India and Islamic Pakistan who each rule over

only parts of it and have previously fought wars over the

Himalayan region.



Hindu nationalist Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has

vowed to pursue the attackers to "the ends of the earth" and

said that those who planned and carried out the Kashmir attack

"will be punished beyond their imagination". Calls have also

grown from Indian politicians and others for military action

against Pakistan.



After the attack, India and Pakistan unleashed a raft of

measures against each other, with Pakistan closing its airspace

to Indian airlines and India suspending the 1960 Indus Waters

Treaty that regulates water-sharing from the Indus River and its

tributaries.



The two sides have also exchanged fire across their de facto

border after four years of relative calm.



A little-known militant group, Kashmir Resistance, claimed

responsibility for the attack in a social media message. Indian

security agencies say Kashmir Resistance, also known as The

Resistance Front, is a front for Pakistan-based militant

organizations such as Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hizbul Mujahideen.



Ned Price, a former U.S. State Department official under the

administration of former President Joe Biden, said that while

the Trump administration was giving this issue the sensitivity

it deserves, a perception that it would back India at any cost

may escalate tensions further.



"The Trump Administration has made clear it wishes to deepen

the U.S.-India partnership — a laudable goal — but that it is

willing to do so at almost any cost. If India feels that the

Trump Administration will back it to the hilt no matter what, we

could be in store for more escalation and more violence between

these nuclear-armed neighbors," Price said.