[ad_1]
NEW DELHI: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Mark Esper are in India to push the Trump administration’s anti-China message exactly one week before the US presidential election.
With President Donald Trump in a close race for a second term against former Vice President Joe Biden, Pompeo and Esper seek to play on Indian suspicions about China to shore up a regional front against growing Chinese assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific region.
In talks on Tuesday (October 27) with their Indian counterparts, Pompeo and Esper will sign an agreement to expand the exchange of military satellite information and highlight the strategic cooperation between Washington and New Delhi with a view to countering China.
Just hours before the meetings began, the Trump administration notified Congress of plans for a $ 2.37 billion sale of Harpoon missile systems to Taiwan, the second major arms sale in two weeks to the island Beijing considers a renegade province. China reacted to the first sale by announcing sanctions on US defense contractors.
Shortly before the Harpoon sale was announced, Pompeo met India’s Foreign Minister S Jaishankar late Monday to praise “the strong US-India partnership” and declared it “critical. for the security and prosperity of both countries, the Indo-Pacific region and the world, ”the State Department said in a statement.
Regardless of considerations about the US national elections, it is a critical moment in the US-India relationship as China looms over the Indo-Pacific.
Intense border tensions between New Delhi and Beijing have only added to Sino-American animosity that has been fueled by disputes over the coronavirus, trade, technology, Taiwan, Tibet, Hong Kong, human rights and disputes between China and its smaller neighbors in the south. China Sea.
Meanwhile, India seeks to break out of a shell of internal troubles, including unrest in the divided Himalayan region of Kashmir, as it faces twin threats from China and Pakistan.
Tuesday’s meetings come during an outbreak of military tensions between India and China in a disputed mountainous region where tens of thousands of soldiers have been involved in a clash since May. Trump has offered to help defuse tensions, but has yet to receive any indication of interest from either side.
READ: India and China hold new talks to end military confrontation
India and China fought a month-long war over the region at the height of the Cuban missile crisis in the fall of 1962, and some fear a similar confrontation before this winter begins.
Pompeo has made no secret of the Trump administration’s desire for India to assist in the United States’ attempt to isolate China. Since Trump became president, the United States and India have steadily intensified their military relationship.
When Trump visited India in February, the two sides concluded defense deals worth more than $ 3 billion. Bilateral defense trade has risen from nearly zero in 2008 to $ 15 billion in 2019.
READ: In Asia, US Secretary of State Pompeo hoped to strengthen allies against China
LEE: Pompeo criticizes China’s ‘corruption and coercion’ in the Tokyo talks
The talks in New Delhi on Tuesday follow a meeting Pompeo had earlier this month in Tokyo with his counterparts from India, Japan and Australia, which together make up the four Indo-Pacific nations known as “the Quad.” The Quad is seen as a counterweight to China, which critics say is exerting its military force throughout the region.
Pompeo will return to Washington via Sri Lanka, Maldives and Indonesia, during which he plans to pressure each nation to reject Chinese assertiveness. He is also expected to raise human rights issues at each stop.
