The European Union’s top diplomat asked her counterparts in India and Pakistan to deescalate Friday amid fears of a military conflict between the two nuclear-armed nations.
“Rising tensions between India and Pakistan are alarming. I urge both sides to show restraint and pursue dialogue to ease the situation,” the EU’s High Representative Kaja Kallas said, adding she said as much to Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar.
The latest rift in the decades-old feud between India and Pakistan started on April 22, when Islamist militants massacred 26 people in Pahalgam, a well-known tourist destination in the Indian-administered region of Kashmir. Both India and Pakistan control parts of Kashmir and claim sovereignty over the entire region.
The gunmen, who New Delhi has accused Islamabad of supporting, reportedly targeted Hindus, who make up the majority of the Indian population.
India has since expelled Pakistani diplomats, suspended a crucial water treaty and canceled visas for Pakistani nationals, with Pakistan responding in kind, and minor skirmishes have erupted along the frontier.
A Pakistani minister claimed this week that India was planning a military attack. The United States has also urged both countries, which have warred with each other before — most recently in 1999 — and have nuclear arsenals, to defuse tensions.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen led a delegation to India in February to discuss a long-awaited trade deal between the bloc and New Delhi.
After the attack in Pahalgam, she sent condolences to “every Indian heart” and vowed in a post on X, “Europe will stand with you.”
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