US president Donald Trump calls India’s attack shameful

WASHINGTON: U.S. President Donald Trump called the rising tension between India and Pakistan “a shame,” as Secret of State Marco Rubio reached out to officials in both nuclear-armed nations after India launched strikes on multiple sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

Washington considers India a key partner in its efforts to counter China’s growing influence, while it continues to view Pakistan as an ally, despite the country’s reduced strategic importance following the U.S. withdrawal from neighboring Afghanistan in 2021.

Pakistan stated that it was preparing a response to India’s milit actions late Tuesday, which came after an Islamist militant attack on April 22 that killed 26 people in the Indian-administered part of the Himalayan region.

“It’s a shame, we just heard about it,” Trump told reporters, opening a new tab at the White House. “I guess people knew something was going to happen based on a little bit of the past. They’ve been fighting for a long time.”

He added, “I just hope it ends very quickly.”

U.S. Secret of State Marco Rubio said on X that he was closely monitoring the situation and added that Washington would continue engaging with the Asian neighbors to achieve a “peaceful resolution.”

The State Department reported that Rubio spoke with the national security advisers of both nations, urging them to “keep lines of communication open and avoid escalation.” The Indian Embassy in Washington stated that Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval briefed Rubio on the milit actions, which occurred early Wednesday in Asia.

In recent days, Washington has urged both neighbors to collaborate on de-escalating tensions and reaching a “responsible solution.” Top U.S. leaders, including Trump, expressed support for India following the April 22 attack, while American officials refrained from directly blaming Pakistan.

Last month, analysts suggested that Washington might allow India and Pakistan to manage their tensions independently in the early days, partly because it was focused on achieving diplomatic goals related to Russia’s war in Ukraine and Israel’s conflict in Gaza.

India and Pakistan will figure out relations between themselves, Trump said on April 25: “They’ll get it figured out one way or the other.”

In recent days, the U.S. State Department has stated that it has been in contact with both nations at multiple levels, and Rubio held telephone calls with officials from both countries last week. Both Hindu-majority India and Islamic Pakistan claim the Muslim-majority Kashmir in its entirety, with each controlling only part of the region and having fought wars over it.

India blamed Pakistan for the April 22 attack, but Pakistan denied the accusations and called for a neutral investigation.