Amidst the dangerous rhetoric between India and Pakistan following the terrorist attack on April 22 in Pahalgam in the Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir, leading countries are adding their weight to negotiations to calm tensions. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov spoke with Indian Foreign Minister
S. Jaishankar by phone yesterday. “Sergey Lavrov called to settle the differences between New Delhi and Islamabad by political and diplomatic means on a bilateral basis in conformity with the 1972 Simla Agreement and the 1999 Lahore Declaration,” the Russian Foreign Ministry readout said.
U.S. Secretary of State Rubio has also said he is talking with both sides. “We are reaching out to both parties, and telling, of course, them to not escalate the situation,” a statement from the State Department said. In addition, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi will visit both Pakistan and India next week, Mehr News reported.
But the saber rattling also continues. Pakistan has conducted a successful training launch of the Abdali Weapon System, a surface-to-surface missile with a range of 450 km, the military’s media affairs wing said on May 3. The Abdali system is reportedly only capable of carrying conventional warheads.
