U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee General Joseph Dunford will visit Pakistan on Wednesday. Pompeo and U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis will travel to New Delhi on Thursday to seal a new defense cooperation agreement. America’s latest cut of $300 million in military aid to Pakistan has caught Islamabad in an emerging cold war between the U.S. and China – a rivalry which has pushed several Asian nations to align with Beijing. Hanging over the September 6 two-plus-two dialogue with India’s defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman and external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj is the prospect that the Trump administration will impose economic sanctions on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government unless it cancels a planned $6 billion acquisition of S-400 anti-aircraft missiles from Russia and cuts purchases of oil from Iran.
Infographics: China in Africa
