Vance says India-Pakistan conflict ‘none of our business' as Trump offers US help
"We can't control these countries," Vance told Fox News' Martha McCallum on "The Story" Thursday. "We're not going to get involved in the middle of a war that's fundamentally none of our business and has nothing to do with America's ability to control it."
Vance's comments came after President Donald Trump offered his help to repair relations between the two neighbors in Asia.
"Oh, it's so terrible. My position is, I get along with both," Trump told reporters Wednesday. "I know both very well, and I want to see them work it out. I want to see them stop. And hopefully they can stop now. They've got a tit-for-tat, so hopefully they can stop now. But I know both. We get along with both countries very well. Good relationships with both. And I want to see it stop. And if I can do anything to help I will. I will be there as well."
Vance, however, said the U.S. does not believe the issue will devolve into a nuclear conflict as he called on both sides to de-escalate.
"America can't tell the Indians to lay down their arms. We can't tell the Pakistanis to lay down their arms. And so we're going to continue to pursue this thing through diplomatic channels. Our hope and our expectation is that this is not going to spiral into a broader regional war or, God forbid, a nuclear conflict."
The vice president's comments come after India attacked nine sites in longtime foe Pakistan's territory in response to a terrorist attack that killed 26 mostly Indian tourists in the disputed Kashmir region.
India said it had intelligence that a terrorist group based in Pakistan was responsible for the attack.
Meanwhile, Pakistan's military reported that the strikes killed at least 26 people – including women and children – and claimed India's action amounted to an "act of war." Pakistan said it shot down five Indian fighter jets in response, claiming that the move was justified given India's strike.
India has since launched drones into Pakistan, which its military forces say they shot down. India has also called up its reservists to ready for the potential of a protracted conflict.
Vance has emerged as the standard-bearer for the Trump administration's non-interventionist wing, giving voice to an American-first foreign policy that breaks sharply from GOP orthodoxy and has been labeled isolationist by hawkish critics.
He claimed the U.S. was "making a mistake" when it began the offensive campaign against the Houthis in March.
"I think we are making a mistake," Vance wrote in a private Signal chat, inadvertently leaked to a journalist and later published by The Atlantic.
"I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now." The commercial ships attacked in the Red Sea are largely European.
Vance has favored diplomatic negotiations with Iran to thwart its nuclear program and was on the attack at a White House meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in February.
"Right now you guys are going around forcing conscripts to the front lines because you have manpower problems," Vance told Zelenskyy. "You should be thanking the president for trying to bring an end to this conflict," he added during a meeting that devolved into a near-shouting match.
Trump, for his part, is seemingly behind Vance and his restraint-minded approach, naming the vice president as a potential successor to the presidency in an NBC interview last week.
"You look at Marco, you look at JD Vance, who's fantastic," Trump said on the future of the top of the Republican ticket, referring to Vance and Secretary of State and interim national security advisor Marco Rubio.
"Certainly you would say that somebody's the V.P., if that person is outstanding, I guess that person would have an advantage."
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