World

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has called for calm between India and Pakistan after a deadly attack in Indian-administered Kashmir that killed 26 Hindu tourists.
In separate phone calls with Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Rubio expressed condolences for the victims and stressed the need for the two countries to work together to maintain peace and security in South Asia.
India has accused Pakistan of supporting the perpetrators of the attack, a charge Islamabad has vehemently denied. As a result, tensions have escalated significantly, including the expulsion of diplomats from both sides, the closure of airspace, and daily exchanges of fire along the Line of Control in Kashmir.
India and Pakistan are both nuclear powers, which makes the situation even more sensitive and dangerous. According to the latest data from the Federation of American Scientists (FAS), India possesses about 160 nuclear warheads, while Pakistan has an arsenal of about 170 nuclear warheads.
Along with the military escalation, the Indus Waters Treaty, the 1960 treaty that regulates the sharing of water resources between India and Pakistan, has also been brought back into the spotlight. Indian officials have threatened to cancel the agreement. Islamabad has called the potential water embargo an “act of war,” warning that such a move could lead to an immediate escalation of the conflict between the two nuclear powers. These developments make diplomatic intervention to preserve peace all the more urgent. A clash between the two nuclear powers, based on territorial disputes and tensions over vital resources such as water, could lead to catastrophic consequences for the region and beyond.