US Vice President JD Vance on Sunday drew attention online after making a light-hearted reference to two “very, very important” people in his life: his wife, Usha Vance, and Pakistan Army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir.
Speaking to the media at the Burgenstock resort in Switzerland after talks with Iranian officials on a wider regional settlement, Vance recalled his interactions with Pakistan’s leadership in Islamabad.
“Since Field Marshal Asim Munir welcomed us with the Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in Islamabad, I have joked that I have two very, very important people in my life. An Indian and a Pakistani. The Indian is my wife, and the Pakistani is Field Marshal Munir,” Vance said.
The remarks were made in the presence of Sharif and Munir, who travelled to Switzerland for the peace talks being mediated by Pakistan and Qatar.
Vance also praised Munir’s role in the diplomatic process, saying he had spoken to the Pakistan Army chief frequently over the past three months. “We would not have been here without his statesmanship and military leadership. He has shown himself to be a great diplomat,” he said.
The comments quickly circulated on social media, drawing renewed attention to Vance’s frequent public references to Usha Vance, whose parents immigrated to the United States from Andhra Pradesh.
During an earlier round of US-Iran negotiations in April, Vance had also described Munir and Sharif as “incredible hosts” and “incredible statesmen” for helping establish a communication channel between Washington and Tehran after decades of estrangement.
Vance and Usha met at Yale Law School in 2010 and married in 2014 in an interfaith ceremony that included Hindu rituals. The couple have three children and are expecting a fourth.
Their interfaith marriage has previously drawn public interest, particularly after Vance, who converted to Catholicism in 2019, said he hoped his Hindu wife might one day adopt Christianity. Usha later clarified that there was no pressure on her to convert.
“It’s not like he’s proselytising to me every day. I am not Catholic, and I do not intend to convert or anything like that,” she said.