US President Donald Trump said he hoped India and Pakistan would stop their escalation after they had “gone tit-for-tat”.
“They’ve gone tit-for-tat, so hopefully they can stop now,” Trump said at the White House on Wednesday, adding he knew both sides “very well” and wanted “to see them work it out”.
“And if I can do anything to help, I will be there,” he added.
The US State Department said that Secretary of State Marco Rubio had discussed efforts to deescalate tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad with his Saudi Arabian counterpart in a call earlier on Wednesday.
Australian National University's Alam Saleh said the escalating tension between India and Pakistan would be to China’s advantage and the US’s disadvantage in terms of regional geopolitics.
Saleh, a senior lecturer in politics and international relations at ANU, said sustained tension between India and Pakistan would tie down New Delhi’s attention and resources and place limits on its regional assertiveness and growing alignment with the US.
The US also finds itself in a “delicate position” between India – “a strategic partner” – on one hand, and Pakistan – a longtime, though complicated “security actor” – on the other, Saleh told the Al Jazeera channel. Amid the tension, Iran “quietly benefits”, he added.
“As the US struggles with simultaneous crises in the Middle East and South Asia, its capacity to pressure Tehran, particularly in the context of faltering nuclear negotiations, is diminished,” Saleh said.
“A distracted and overstretched Washington gives Iran more room to manoeuvre both regionally and diplomatically,” he said.
“In sum, the India–Pakistan conflict offers strategic openings to both China and Iran, while placing the United States in a position of reactive limitation rather than proactive influence,” he added.
