India, Pakistan facing a ‘very dangerous situation’ : Trump

Washington: United States President Donald Trump, while voicing alarm at a “very dangerous” standoff between India and Pakistan, indicated that the US and others are trying to defuse tensions between South Asia’s two nuclear-armed states.
“Right now between Pakistan and India, there is a very, very bad situation. A very dangerous situation,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “We would like to see it [hostilities] stop. A lot of people were just killed. We want to see it just stop. We are very much involved in that [process],” he added.
The exchange alarmed world capitals, who — as President Trump hinted in his news briefing on yesterday — immediately got in touch with both New Delhi and Islamabad to defuse the situation.
“We’re talking and a lot of people are talking […] but it is a very, very delicate balance going on. Right now, there is (sic) a lot of problems between India and Pakistan because of what just happened,” Trump said.
Trump assured India that the US understood its feelings. “India is looking at something very strong. India just lost almost 50 people in the attack. I can understand that too,” he said, adding that his administration was talking to “authorities in both countries”. He, however, did not specify what measures the US and other nations had so far taken to avoid further escalation between the neighbouring countries.
President Trump, in response to a question during news briefing, pointed out that the US had last year suspended military aid to Pakistan “because they weren’t helping us in the way that they should have”.
“I stopped paying Pakistan the $1.3 billion that we used to pay them. In the meantime, we may set up some meetings with Pakistan,” he said, but did not explain the nature, level or timings of those meetings.
He, however, added that ties between the two countries had improved.
“We have developed a much better relationship with Pakistan [in a] short period of time than we had [before],” Trump said. Bilateral ties between Washington and Islamabad have grown warmer since Pakistan agreed to broker peace talks between the Afghan Taliban and the US. The US is looking to achieve a lasting solution to Afghanistan’s crisis before withdrawing its troops from Afghan soil. (Agencies )