WASHINGTON – General Joseph Votel , US CENTCOM Commander was on the phonewith Gen Bajwa, the chief of the army staff. And we’ll continue tocoordinate this,” US Defence Chief Mattis said at an afternoon newsbriefing 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.ARTICLE CONTINUES AFTER AD

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.

Trump backs plan to use suspended aid money in US

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.

At the State Department briefing, officials indicated that Washington couldmake “exemptions” for programmes deemed vital to US national security.

At the Pentagon, Secretary Mattis acknowledged Pakistan’s sacrifices in thewar against terrorism but said the aid suspension was part of the new USstrategy for South Asia.

“Pakistan has lost more troops total than all of NATO, coalition combinedin the fight against them. But we’ve had disagreements strong disagreementson some issues, and we’re working those,” he said.

Asked if he believed the civilian government was capable of assisting UScounterterrorism efforts in the region, Mr Mattis said: “I would say thePakistan government is capable of doing what we’re trying to do together,yes. Absolutely.”