US asks Pakistan, India to work toward 'responsible solution'
Washington says it is in touch with both governments at multiple levels
The US State Department has said that Washington was in touch with both Pakistan and India while urging them to work towards what it called a "responsible solution" as tensions have rised between the two South Asian neighbours following Pahalgam attack.
In public, the US government has expressed support for India after the attack but has not criticized Pakistan. India blamed Pakistan for the April 22 attack that killed over two dozen people. Pakistan rejects Indian allegations 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 US State Department spokesperson told Reuters in an emailed statement on Sunday.
"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 attack in Pahalgam," reiterating comments similar to recent ones made by President Donald Trump and Vice-President JD Vance.
Michael Kugelman, a Washington-based South Asia analyst and writer for the Foreign Policy magazine, said 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 US and a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute think tank, also said that there seemed to be no US 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 US interest in calming things down," Haqqani said.
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.
Ned Price, a former US 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 US-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 neighbours," Price said.