Conflicting Signals From US? Rubio Asks India to Engage Pakistan, Hegseth Offers ‘Strong Support’

New Delhi: In a clear signal to New Delhi to refrain from military action, US secretary of state Marco Rubio urged India to “work with Pakistan” to ease tensions and maintain peace in South Asia.

However, just a day later, Indian defence minister Rajnath Singh said a US cabinet member had backed India’s “right to self-defence” – a claim not reflected in US defence secretary Pete Hegseth’s public statement about the call.

The missive about engagement was conveyed by Rubio during a phone call with Indian external affairs minister S. Jaishankar on Wednesday (April 30) night.

On the same day, Rubio also spoke with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, urging Islamabad to cooperate in the investigation into the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam.

The twin calls come more than a week after terrorists opened fire in a popular meadow in Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir, killing 26 civilians, most of them tourists from different states of India.

In its official readout, the US state department said Rubio “encouraged India to work with Pakistan to de-escalate tensions and maintain peace and security in South Asia.”

The statement was prefaced by an expression of “sorrow” over the “horrific terrorist attack” and a reaffirmation of the US’s “commitment to cooperation with India against terrorism”.

There was no formal statement from the Indian government on the phone call. Jaishankar, however, posted a brief message on X on Thursday morning that he spoke with Rubio, adding: “Its [the attack’s] perpetrators, backers and planners must be brought to justice.”

Discussed the Pahalgam terrorist attack with US @SecRubio yesterday. Its perpetrators, backers and planners must be brought to justice.

— Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) May 1, 2025

Meanwhile, Rubio urged Pakistan to cooperate in the investigation into the terror attack and called on Islamabad to work with New Delhi to defuse rising tensions in the region.

As per the official readout from the US state department, released in early hours of Thursday (India time), Rubio spoke with Sharif and underscored the need to “condemn the terror attack” and described the killings as “unconscionable”.

The statement added that “both leaders reaffirmed their continued commitment to holding terrorists accountable for their heinous acts of violence”.

“He also encouraged Pakistan to work with India to de-escalate tensions, re-establish direct communications and maintain peace and security in South Asia,” added state department spokesperson Tammy Bruce.

Less than a day later, on Thursday evening in New Delhi, Singh tweeted that he had spoken to Hegseth, whose tone appeared notably different.

In his tweet, Singh directly stated that Pakistan has a “history of supporting, training and funding terrorist organisations.”

More strikingly, Singh claimed that “secretary Hegseth said that the US stands in solidarity with India and supports India’s right to defend itself” and that Hegseth “reiterated the strong support of the US government in India's fight against terrorism.”

If Hegseth did indeed say that India had the right to defend itself, it could be interpreted as a green light for military action.

Later in Washington, the US defence secretary posted a tweet about the phone call in which he said that he “personally extend[ed] [his] deepest condolences for the loss of life in the heinous terrorist attack last week”.

“I offered my strong support. We stand with India and its great people,” he wrote.

Today, I spoke with Indian Defense Minister Singh @rajnathsingh to personally extend my deepest condolences for the loss of life in the heinous terrorist attack last week.

I offered my strong support. We stand with India and its great people

— Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth (@SecDef) May 1, 2025

The tweet did not mention whether Hegseth had explicitly supported India’s right to self-defence as Singh’s post suggested. If he had, it would represent a shift from the more restrained messaging from the state department and the White House.

Indeed, while Rubio reaffirmed strategic alignment with India on counter-terrorism, his tone mirrored that of President Donald Trump, who took a more neutral stance in his initial public response to the crisis.

“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. That was a bad one [the terrorist attack],” Trump said, in an audio clip released by the White House.

The Resistance Front, believed by Indian analysts to be a front for the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Tayyaba group, initially claimed responsibility for the attack on social media but later retracted its statement, alleging its account had been hacked.

A day after the Pahalgam attack, India responded with several measures, including suspending the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty, expelling all Pakistani military attachés, reducing the size of diplomatic missions and ordering Pakistani nationals to leave the country.

Pakistan took similar steps and also announced its intention to withdraw from all bilateral treaties, including the 1972 Simla Agreement.

Islamabad also said that India’s potential blocking of the Indus River’s waters would be seen as an “act of war”.

Pakistan has since claimed that India is preparing to launch a military strike in retaliation, drawing comparisons to operations conducted in 2016 and 2019.

Originally published at 10:11 am on May 1, this article was updated at 1:05 am on May 2 with details about Rajnath Singh and Pete Hegseth's statements.

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