Latest news with #DeEscalation
CNN
11-05-2025
- Politics
- CNN
Vance called Indian prime minister to encourage ceasefire talks after receiving alarming intelligence, sources say
Source: CNN A core group of top US officials — including Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State and interim national security adviser Marco Rubio, and White House chief of staff Susie Wiles — had been closely monitoring the escalating conflict between India and Pakistan when on Friday morning, the US received alarming intelligence, Trump administration officials told CNN. While they declined to describe the nature of the information, citing its sensitivity, they said it was critical in persuading the three officials that the US should increase its involvement. Vance himself would call Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The vice president briefed President Donald Trump on the plan, then spoke with Modi at noon ET on Friday, making clear to the Indian prime minister that the White House believed there was a high probability for dramatic escalation as the conflict went into the weekend, the administration officials said. Vance encouraged Modi to have his country communicate with Pakistan directly and to consider options for de-escalation, the officials said. The behind-the-scenes details of the US involvement have not previously been reported. At that point, the officials said, the US believed the nuclear-armed neighbors were not talking, and it needed to get them back to the bargaining table. Vance also outlined to Modi a potential off-ramp that the US understood the Pakistanis would be amenable to, the officials said, though they did not offer details. Following the call, State Department officials, including Rubio, began working the phones with their counterparts in India and Pakistan through the night, the sources said. Rubio had been calling people in the region beginning Tuesday with a general idea of how to reach a ceasefire, but the administration left the finer details of the agreement for India and Pakistan to work out directly. 'There was a lot of effort going on to try and tamp down escalation earlier in the week, and it was clear at that point that the two sides weren't talking,' one of the officials familiar with Rubio's calls to his counterparts said. 'The goal earlier this week was to encourage India and Pakistan to talk with our counterparts and figure out a path to de-escalation through a ceasefire, and through the course of those conversations, US officials were able to gain insights into what those potential off-ramps look like for both sides, and be able to help relay that message and bridge some of that communications divide, which then allowed the two sides to actually talk and get to the point where we are now,' the source said. The Trump administration was not involved in helping draft the agreement, the administration officials said and viewed its role mostly as getting the two sides to talk. But from the US perspective, Vance's call to Modi was a critical moment. Vance traveled to India and met with the prime minister last month, and Trump officials believed his relationship with Modi would help on the call, officials said. Vance's call with Modi came just a day after the vice president said the conflict was 'none of our business,' downplaying the potential for US influence. 'What we can do is try to encourage these folks to de-escalate a little bit, but we're not going to get involved in the middle of war that's fundamentally none of our business and has nothing to do with America's ability to control it,' Vance told Fox News on Thursday. 'You know, 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,' Vance said. The ceasefire was reached following a day of intense fighting Saturday. The Trump administration officials said precise details of how the ceasefire will be monitored are still being determined. Blasts were heard in India-administered Kashmir and over Pakistan-administered Kashmir hours after the ceasefire announcement. Trump announced the 'full and immediate ceasefire' on social media Saturday morning, and Rubio minutes later posted, 'I am pleased to announce the Governments of India and Pakistan have agreed to an immediate ceasefire and to start talks on a broad set of issues at a neutral site.' State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said the ceasefire was a result of several conversations between Rubio and Vance over the past 48 hours between top officials in each country. 'It was a beautiful partnership,' Bruce said Saturday on NewsNation, praising Vance and Rubio for 'implementing the insight and vision of President Trump.' While Pakistan praised US involvement in the talks, India has downplayed it. 'We thank President Trump for his leadership and proactive role for peace in the region,' Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif wrote on X about three hours after Trump announced the ceasefire. India's foreign secretary, Vikram Misri, did not mention US involvement when announcing the agreement, and an Indian statement said the deal was worked out 'directly' between the two countries. It should not be surprising that these bitter rivals have given contradictory accounts of how the ceasefire was reached. In their long history of tensions, India and Pakistan have both viewed foreign intervention differently. India, which views itself as an ascendant superpower, has long been resistant to international mediation, whereas Pakistan, which is heavily dependent on foreign aid, tends to welcome it, analysts say. See Full Web Article
BBC News
09-05-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Kashmir: What's the way out of the India and Pakistan crisis?
As the continuing India-Pakistan crisis takes a dangerous turn, nations around the world are urging initial thinking was that after India launched air strikes, and with Pakistan claiming to have shot down several Indian jets - a claim Delhi has not confirmed - both sides could claim "victory" and there's a danger that any protracted tit-for-tat attacks could lead them to a far more damaging past conflicts, such as in 2019 and 2016, it was the United States and a few other global powers that put pressure on Delhi and Islamabad to bring the situation under control and de-escalate. Now passions are running high and the nationalist rhetoric has reached a crescendo on both sides. The neighbours are closer to war than in recent Why India and Pakistan fight over itWhat we know about India's strikes on Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir'The World community is keeping quiet; that's dangerous,' Ayesha Siddiqa, a Pakistani academic who is a senior fellow at King's College London. 'Though the flare up has been happening for decades, this is the first time the two countries find themselves in a conflict without anyone monitoring them or forcefully telling them to stop,' she Washington gets more involved, Islamabad and Delhi may continue with their accusations and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been telling the senior leaders of India and Pakistan to de-escalate, the message from other American leaders is Vice-President JD Vance has said that a potential war between India and Pakistan would be "none of our business" during an interview with Fox News."We want this thing to de-escalate as quickly as possible. We can't control these countries, though," Vance was on a visit to India when the militant attack in Indian-administered Kashmir, which killed 26 civilians, took President Donald Trump had earlier called rising tension between India and Pakistan a "shame". During previous India-Pakistan skirmishes, for example in 2019, tension was defused quickly after India carried out what it called 'surgical strikes' on what it called terrorist camps inside Indian military jet was shot down in the aftermath of the crisis and the pilot was captured by Pakistan. He was released two days later after reported intervention from Washington and other world powers. But the intensity of the current conflict is different and passions are running high on both the Trump administration's priorities are more about tariffs, China and Ukraine-Russia, it may require a concerted attempt by the international community to lower tension between the two nuclear-armed other world power which has a stake in South Asia is China. Beijing has close economic and military ties with Islamabad. It has invested more than $50bn (£37.5bn) in Pakistan as parts of its China-Pakistan Economic Corridor to boost also has unresolved border issues with India and the two countries recently had a border clash in the Himalayan region 2020. Despite the tension, China is the second largest trading partner of India."If the US is uninterested [in resolving India-Pakistan tension] then other permanent members of the UN Security Council – P5 - should get involved. It is their responsibility as well," Shen Dingli, a Shanghai-based international affairs expert tells the India accuses Pakistan of supporting the Kashmiri separatist rebels, who carried out the deadly attack on tourists last month, the Chinese academic says "the P-5 members can launch a credible investigation into the incident", to address India's concerns. Gulf states like Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which have close ties to both the countries, could step up their mediation Arabian Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel Al-Jubeir arrived in Delhi on 7 May in what was seen as a surprise visit amid the backdrop of a spike in tensions between India and Pakistan. 'A good meeting with Adel Al-Jubeir," Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said, adding that his counterpart 'shared India's perspective on firmly countering terrorism'.The Saudi minister arrived in Islamabad on Friday for talks with Pakistan's are an estimated 2.6 million Pakistanis living and working in the Gulf Kingdom. Riyadh has considerable influence in Arabia has loaned billions of dollars to Pakistan to bail out the country during economic crises over the way out of the current crisis could be a situation where both sides can claim victory to satisfy their says the missile strikes on suspected militant hideouts inside Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir were part of a commitment to hold 'accountable' those responsible for the last month's attack in Pahalgam. 'India has already said it has achieved its objectives. Now, the ball is in Pakistan's court. If they wish to retaliate then that would elicit a strong response from India,' retired Indian Lt Gen D S Hooda said. For Pakistan, especially for its powerful military, it would want to show its people that it can stand up against India and teach it a lesson once again by downing five of the Indian air force jets during a dog fight. India has not acknowledged the loss of any of its fighter jets in the current according to Pakistani academic Siddiqa, how the current crisis ends depends on what India's stated objectives are.'India's goal posts keep changing day by day – from punishing Pakistan to attaining something more,' she said. You may also be interested in:
