Rubio Briefed By India, State Dept.Urges Restraint; Trump Calls Tensions A “Shame”

India-West News Desk

WASHINGTON, D.C.– President Donald Trump on May 7 weighed in on India’s missile strikes inside Pakistani territory, describing the development as unfortunate but not unexpected given the longstanding tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbors.

Speaking from the Oval Office, Trump told reporters, “It’s a shame. We just heard about it as we were walking through the doors of the Oval.”

He added, “I guess people knew something was going to happen based on a little bit of the past. They’ve been fighting for a long time. I hope it ends very quickly.”

This was akin to the statement he made in April where he said inaccurately cited history, “I am very close to India and I’m very close to Pakistan, and they’ve had that fight for a thousand years in Kashmir. Kashmir has been going on for a thousand years, probably longer than that.”

The U.S. State Department acknowledged the situation but refrained from issuing an immediate judgment. A spokesperson said, “We are aware of the reports, but we have no assessment to offer at this time. This remains an evolving situation, and we are closely monitoring developments.”

In a significant diplomatic outreach, India’s National Security Advisor Ajit Doval briefed the NSA and Secretary of State Marco Rubio on the details of the Indian strikes. According to the Indian embassy in Washington, the conversations were aimed at ensuring continued transparency and affirming India’s position that the strikes targeted terrorist infrastructure in response to the recent attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir.