The Secretary of State of the United States on a five-day trip to Asia aimed at strengthening strategic ties in the face of growing Chinese influence in the region.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo landed in India, the first leg of a five-day trip to Asia aimed at strengthening strategic ties in the face of growing Chinese influence in the region.
Pompeo will meet with Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar later on Monday.
On Tuesday, he and US Defense Secretary Mark Esper will hold a joint summit with Jaishankar and Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh.
Later that day, Pompeo and Esper will visit the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, according to a draft of the trip itinerary published by the Indian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The trip is part of the latest effort by the United States to bolster the allies against an increasingly assertive China, which has made political and military inroads in Asia, analysts said.
Before the trip, Pompeo said their meetings “would include discussions on how free nations can work together to thwart the threats posed by the Chinese Communist Party.”
The world’s two largest democracies are expected to sign an agreement to share geospatial intelligence, paving the way for the United States to send out sophisticated missile technology, authorities said.
‘Closer military embrace’
Esper will also discuss ways to increase cooperation between the military forces of the two countries. This could include intelligence sharing, intensifying joint exercises, and arms sales, possibly including US F-18 fighters.
India is caught in a military showdown with China on its disputed border with the Himalayas and has reportedly sought cold-weather equipment from the US as the border showdown between the two Asian giants enters the frigid winter. .
Defense analyst Pravin Sawhney told Al Jazeera that Pompeo’s visit will bring India into a “closer military embrace of the United States.”
“It amounts to India becoming a de facto military ally of the United States without any reciprocal responsibility from the United States in the Indian wars,” he said.
“India can show US strategic support for China at a time when the two nations are embroiled in a military showdown in eastern Ladakh.”
Pompeo will travel to Sri Lanka and the Maldives, two countries in the Indian Ocean where China has financed and built various infrastructures, to the alarm of India and the United States.
He will end his trip, which comes in the last week before the US presidential election, in Indonesia, one of several Southeast Asian countries wary of growing Chinese activities in the disputed South China Sea.
Bilal Kuchay contributed to this report.
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