Washington: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Wednesday, April 30, urged India and Pakistan to work with each other to defuse tensions after last week Islamist Islamist attack on cashmere administered in India It killed 26 people, said the State Department.
Rubio spoke separately with the Indian Minister of Foreign Affairs Subrahmanyama Jaishankar and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif while expressing his support for India in the fight against extremism and urging Pakistan to cooperate to probe the attack, said the State Department after Rubio calls.
Wednesday calls mark the highest levels of known simultaneous diplomatic commitments from Washington to reduce Indian-Pakistani tensions since the April 22 attack.
India is an important American partner to counter the growing influence of China. Pakistan remains the Washington ally, even if its importance decreased after the removal of the United States in 2021 from neighboring Afghanistan.
The statements of the State Department after calls described the attack on the cashmere “terror” and “unreasonable” and said that Rubio spoke to Pakistan “of the need to condemn it”.
Rubio “urged the cooperation of Pakistani officials in the investigation into this unreasonable attack,” said the State Department. The Sharif office said that he had asked Rubio to urge India “to compose rhetoric”.
Rubio urged Asian nuclear armed neighbors to work with each other “to defuse tensions, restore direct communications and maintain peace”.
