News analysis Is the US washing its hands of the India-Pakistan conflict?

Surprisingly low-key response may reflect reluctance to play role of world policeman

- Bhagyashree Garekar

WASHINGTON - The Trump administration's isolationist, America First stance is showing in its surprisingly low-key response to the escalation in hostilities between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan after a terrorist attack in the disputed Kashmir region.

Coming while the White House is simultaneously making efforts to end the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, it perhaps reflects the superpower's reluctance to play the policeman of the world.

India and Pakistan — which have fought three wars over Kashmir, the picturesque Himalayan region which both nations claim but each holds only a part of — were locked in a spiral of tit-for-tat military strikes for a fourth day on May 9.

On May 9, Pakistan said it had shot down 25 Indian drones over the skies of its major cities like Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi. India said it had neutralised several Pakistani air defence radars and systems, including one in Lahore, after several cities in its border areas faced a barrage of missiles and drones.

Pakistan says Indian air strikes and cross-border fire have killed 36 people, while India has reported at least 16 dead from Pakistani shelling.