WASHINGTON: US Defence Secretary James Mattis on Friday said that thePentagon was maintaining its communication with the Pakistani militaryestablishment, including with Army Chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa, even aftersuspending its security assistance to Pakistan.
“I think, yesterday Gen Joseph Votel was on the phone with Gen Bajwa, thechief of the army staff. And we’ll continue to coordinate this,” he said atan afternoon news briefing at the Pentagon.
“Obviously, we’ll continue talking with one another, as we are at alltimes,” said the US defence chief, but he did not clarify if theconversation took place before or after Washington announced the aidsuspension on Thursday.
As commander of the US Central Command, Gen Votel is directly responsiblefor US war efforts in Afghanistan where Washington still maintains about14,000 troops and other military assets.
Mr Mattis said the Trump administration considered all possibilities beforesuspending its military assistance to Pakistan and was not worried aboutIslamabad shutting off supplies to Afghanistan in retaliation.
“I’m not concerned, no,” he said when asked if the suspension could leadPakistan to cut off supply lines, adding that he had not received anyindication from Islamabad that it might block supply lines.
Mr Mattis said “no” again when asked if he was worried that China wouldmove in to fill the gap created by the absence of US military aid toPakistan.
Also on Friday, a senior Trump administration official told journalists inWashington that the suspension would cost Pakistan an estimated $2 billionin military funding and equipment during the current and next fiscal years.
Unlike Mr Mattis, the official acknowledged that Islamabad could cut offsupply routes to Afghanistan but insisted that “unless we deal with thePakistan sanctuary issue, it will undermine all of our other efforts inAfghanistan”.
At a third briefing, two US State Department officials said the suspensioncould affect Foreign Military Financing carried forward from 2016 as wellas previous funds not yet been spent or delivered.
US media reports indicated that the suspension could also jeopardise almost$1bn of US military equipment, some of which are already in the pipeline.
But analysts, who spoke to various media outlets, said it’s highly unlikelythat the US will freeze all its supplies to Pakistan.