The U.S. State Department announced on Sunday that Washington is actively communicating with both India and Pakistan amid growing tensions between the two South Asian neighbors following a recent deadly militant attack in Kashmir. While affirming its support for India, the United States has stopped short of directly criticizing Pakistan.
India has placed blame on Pakistan for the April 22 terrorist attack in Indian-administered Kashmir that claimed more than two dozen lives. Pakistan, however, has denied any involvement and is advocating for an impartial international investigation.
“This is an evolving situation and we are monitoring developments closely. We have been in touch with the governments of India and Pakistan at multiple levels,” said a spokesperson for the U.S. State Department in a statement emailed to Reuters. “The United States encourages all parties to work together towards a responsible resolution.”
The State Department also reiterated its condemnation of the attack, specifically referring to the incident in Pahalgam, aligning with statements made earlier by President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance. “The United States stands with India and strongly condemns the terrorist attack in Pahalgam,” the spokesperson said.
India has become an increasingly strategic partner for the United States as Washington seeks to curb China’s growing power across Asia. Meanwhile, Pakistan, although still a U.S. ally, has seen its importance to American foreign policy decline, particularly after the U.S. military withdrew from Afghanistan in 2021.
Michael Kugelman, a South Asia analyst based in Washington and a contributor to Foreign Policy magazine, emphasized the shifting dynamics between the U.S. and the two South Asian countries. “India is now a much closer U.S. partner than Pakistan,” Kugelman stated. He noted that this growing alliance could unsettle Islamabad. “This may worry Islamabad that if India retaliates militarily, the U.S. may sympathize with its counter-terrorism imperatives and not try to stand in the way.”
Kugelman also pointed out that the U.S. government, currently engaged in major international crises such as Russia’s war in Ukraine and the Israel-Gaza conflict, may lack the bandwidth to intervene promptly in South Asia. “The Trump administration is dealing with a lot on its global plate and may leave India and Pakistan on their own, at least in the early days of the tensions,” he added.
Hussain Haqqani, a former Pakistani ambassador to the U.S. and currently a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute think tank, echoed this sentiment. He suggested that the current U.S. administration has little interest in de-escalating the situation. “India has a longstanding grievance about terrorism emanating or supported from across border. Pakistan has a longstanding belief that India wants to dismember it. Both work themselves into a frenzy every few years. This time there is no U.S. interest in calming things down,” Haqqani observed.
The region of Kashmir, a Muslim-majority territory, remains a flashpoint of conflict between Hindu-majority India and Islamic Pakistan. Both nations claim the territory in full but control only parts of it. The dispute has triggered several wars and countless skirmishes since the two nations gained independence from Britain in 1947.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, known for his strong nationalist stance, vowed to hunt down the attackers responsible for the Pahalgam violence. “Those who planned and carried out the Kashmir attack will be punished beyond their imagination,” Modi declared. He pledged to pursue the perpetrators “to the ends of the earth.”
In the wake of the attack, demands have surged within India for a military response against Pakistan. Politicians and commentators have urged strong retaliatory measures. The situation has led both nations to take a series of antagonistic steps, worsening bilateral relations further.
Pakistan, in response to India’s accusations and increasing hostility, closed its airspace to Indian aircraft. Meanwhile, India suspended the Indus Waters Treaty, a key agreement signed in 1960 to manage the shared usage of the Indus River and its tributaries between the two countries.
There have also been reports of military exchanges along the Line of Control, the de facto border that divides Indian and Pakistani-controlled Kashmir. This marks an end to a four-year period of relative calm between the nuclear-armed rivals.
The militant group claiming responsibility for the Pahalgam attack, Kashmir Resistance, issued a statement on social media. Indian security agencies contend that this group, also known as The Resistance Front, serves as a front for well-known Pakistan-based terrorist outfits like Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hizbul Mujahideen.
Ned Price, a former U.S. State Department spokesperson under President Joe Biden, warned that the Trump administration’s perceived strong backing of India might exacerbate the situation. “The Trump Administration has made clear it wishes to deepen the U.S.-India partnership — a laudable goal — but that it is willing to do so at almost any cost. If India feels that the Trump Administration will back it to the hilt no matter what, we could be in store for more escalation and more violence between these nuclear-armed neighbors,” said Price.
The delicate balance of diplomacy in South Asia is now under added strain, with both India and Pakistan escalating rhetoric and taking tit-for-tat measures. The involvement of the United States, while supportive of India’s counter-terrorism position, appears limited in terms of proactive peacemaking, potentially leaving the region to navigate its latest crisis largely on its own.
As tensions mount, the region and the broader international community will be watching closely to see whether diplomatic efforts can prevent another escalation or whether retaliatory military action will push South Asia into yet another phase of heightened conflict. The risks remain high, given both nations possess nuclear weapons and have a long history of confrontations over Kashmir.