Pompeo due in Asia for talks on China, N.Korea
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will head in a few days to Japan, South Korea and Mongolia, the STATE DEPT. said Tuesday, on a trip likely to focus heavily on China and North Korea.
Pompeo’s trip to Tokyo is definitely the first by a high US official since Yoshihide Suga took office on September 16, succeeding veteran prime minister Shinzo Abe, a close ally of Washington.
On October 6 in Tokyo, Pompeo will hold a four-way ending up in his counterparts from Australia, India and Japan - the “Quad” formation, heavily promoted by Abe, that is widely seen as a bid by the region’s major democracies to step up cooperation when confronted with China.
Pompeo is a vociferous critic of China on issues from security to human rights to the Covid-19 pandemic, which President Donald Trump’s administration has sought at fault squarely on Beijing ahead of the November 3 elections.
Pompeo has led a global campaign for other nations to shun China, including its technology.
His visit to South Korea comes as hopes subside for a breakthrough with North Korea, earlier a high priority by Trump as he sought foreign policy wins before elections.
Trump has met three times with the authoritarian state’s leader Kim Jong Un, and Pompeo recently said that talks were continuing behind the scenes with North Korea, although he admitted that the administration would have liked to attain more progress.
Pompeo, the former head of the CIA, traveled four times in 2018 to North Korea hoping of sealing a breakthrough.
But he is not to the spot since June 2019, when he joined Trump at several 20 summit in Japan and an end in South Korea that included an impromptu meeting with Kim in the Demilitarized Zone.
Pompeo on October 7 will be the first US secretary of state since 2016 to go to Mongolia, which includes sought close relations with america amid its delicate position sandwiched between China and Russia.
Pompeo has been traveling frequently in recent weeks after a slowdown as a result of coronavirus. He will check out Asia shortly after overall a trip to Greece, Italy and Croatia.
