US focus is on preventing escalation, says State Department Spokesperson on India-Pak tensions

WASHINGTON DC: US State Department Spokesperson Tammy Bruce on Thursday (local time) said that Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s primary focus is to ensure the situation does not escalate further amid rising tensions between India and Pakistan.

Speaking at a press briefing, Bruce said the United States has been actively engaging with both countries to broker peace and emphasised that communication is essential.

“The real focus of the Secretary of State is that this should not escalate. This has been a key framework. This has been an issue for decades and with what we saw over the last few weeks, after the terrorist attack. It was not surprising but very, very disappointing. It should not escalate and communication was fundamentally key that there should be talks, there should not be silence, and that America was at the center of this in speaking with a variety of leaders of both countries over the last two days,” she said.

Bruce added that the US was working with India on several intergovernmental levels.

“There’s some discussion that Pakistan wants an independent investigation as to what has happened regarding the terrorist attack. We want the perpetrators to be held accountable and are supportive of any efforts to that end. We continue to urge India and Pakistan to work towards a responsible solution in this,” she said.

“We also want to say that what matters in this particular instance right now is that the phone calls happened and we are remaining engaged with both governments at multiple levels. We will not engage in the nature of discussing what the conversations have been or what we’ve conveyed,” Bruce added.

When asked whether the US supports India’s view that Pakistan shelters terrorist groups, Bruce pointed to the long-standing US position on cross-border terrorism.

“Obviously in today’s world, that’s a call that we have been making for decades. It is the dynamic that we’ve seen in the Middle East disrupting lives and clearly what happened in Kashmir is awful and we’ve all send our condolences. The world has rejected the nature of that kind of violence,” she said.

Bruce also confirmed that Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar to call for restraint and direct communication.

“This morning Secretary Marco Rubio spoke with Pakistani PM Shehbaz Sharif and EAM Dr S Jaishankar. In both calls, the Secretary emphasised the need for immediate de-escalation and called for an end to the violence. He expressed US support for direct dialogue between India and Pakistan and encouraged continued efforts to improve communications,” she said. (ANI)