U.S. to stay out of war that's none of our business: Vance on India-Pak tensions

US not getting involved in India-Pakistan tensions, encouraging de-escalation through diplomatic channels to prevent nuclear conflict.

Amid escalating tensions between India and Pakistan, the U.S. has said it is not going to get involved in a war that's "fundamentally none of our business".

While the U.S. cannot control India and Pakistan, it can encourage the two nuclear-armed neighbours to de-escalate, Vice President J.D. Vance said in a TV interview on Thursday (May 8, 2025).

"Look, we're concerned about any time nuclear powers collide and have a major conflict," Mr. Vance said when asked how concerned the Trump administration is about a potential nuclear war between India and Pakistan.

Mr. Vance quoted U.S. President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio who have said that Washington wants the tensions to "de-escalate" as quickly as possible.

"We can't control these countries though. Fundamentally, India has its gripes with Pakistan. Pakistan has responded to India. 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," the Vice President said.

"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, but sure, we're worried about these things.

"But I think the job of diplomacy, but also the job of cooler heads in India and Pakistan is to make sure this doesn't become a nuclear war. If it happened of course it would be disastrous. Right now we don't think that's going to happen," he said.