Welcome back. I'm Ian Masters, and this is Background Briefing, available 24-7 at

Background Briefing.org. And joining us now is Cleo Pascal, who's a non-resident senior fellow

at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, focusing on the Indo-Pacific region and the strategic

implications of the intersection of geopolitical, geoeconomic, and geophysical change.

She is briefed government departments of the United States, the United Kingdom,

the European Union, India and many others,

and is the author of Global Warring,

how environmental, economic, and political crises will redraw the world map.

And she recently testified before Congress on Chinese influence operations in the Pacific Islands.

And she has an article at The Guardian, three upcoming events that could torpedo Pacific Peace.

Welcome to background briefing, Cleo Pascal.

Always a pleasure to talk to you. Thank you for having me on.

Well, thanks to joining us, Cleo.

And just in the context of India versus China and China's influence,

a growing influence, both in the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean,

let's just touch on what's happening between Canada, since you're Canadian, and China and in particular India,

because there's been the assassination of a Sikh activist in Canada, which has created a rift between Canada and India.

And now, of course, there's the US's, well, we're not quite sure what's going on with

an assassination attempt on another Sikh activist here in the United States, the extent

to which India may have been planning to kill somebody on American soil, which has now got the U.S.

Biden administration in private talks with India, which we don't know about, but presumably

if that were true, that would be very, very, it's a real red line.

...