Mike Pompeo shortens Asia trip after Donald Trump falls ill with Covid-19
- US secretary of State will skip Mongolia and South Korea legs of trip
- Pompeo’s visit to East Asia would be his first to the region in over a year
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will depart for Japan on Sunday but will not go to Mongolia and South Korea as originally planned, the State Department said on Saturday, after President Donald Trump was diagnosed and hospitalised due to the coronavirus.
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Initially, Pompeo planned to visit all three countries between October 4 and October 8. He is still set to leave for Tokyo on Sunday but will be returning to Washington on October 6 after consultations with his Japanese counterparts and attending a wider meeting with foreign ministers of India and Australia.
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In a speech delivered virtually earlier to the Florida Family Policy Council, Pompeo said he was in good health but that he cancelled his in-person appearance at the event “out of an abundance of caution”. He said he still planned to go to Asia.
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“You should know that I’m feeling fine, I’m doing great. I’ve been tested twice in two days. I’m as healthy as I’ve been. And I intend still – I have a trip that I’m planning to take to Asia tomorrow,” he said.
In a statement, the State Department said Pompeo was expecting to travel to Asia again in October and will work to reschedule the visits in his original itinerary.
Pompeo’s visit to East Asia, his first to the region in over a year, comes at a time when US ties with Beijing are at their worst in decades.
Pompeo is meeting with the foreign ministers of Japan, Australia and India - so called the Quad group that is seen as a counter to China’s influence in the region. Beijing has made clear its opposition to the US “Indo-Pacific strategy”, which was conceived to elevate India as a potential regional counterweight to China.
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The meeting is also one of the highest-profile diplomatic gatherings for the Trump administration before the US presidential election, where policy toward Beijing has become a major campaign issue. It also comes as China and India try to defuse tensions on their disputed Himalayan border, after a military standoff led to gunshots being fired over the frontier for the first time since 1975.
The Quad gathering will “focus on pressing issues of the Indo-Pacific region,” State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said.
The US president’s campaign launched “Operation MAGA” to send out surrogates who would attest to his vitality and keep his voter base motivated until Trump recovers enough to resume campaigning in person.
Both Pompeo and his wife have tested negative for the virus.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
