Pompeo cancels Europe trip citing Biden transition after Luxembourg snub

In a bid to ensure a 'smooth and orderly transition’ of Joe Biden taking office on January 20, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo cancelled his trip to Europe at last minute. In a statement, State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus said this week's planned travel are cancelled. According to a press release issued on January 12, Pompeo, who had refused to recognise Joe Biden’s victory in presidential election, scrapped his trip to Brussels as State Department is expecting a plan from incoming administration identifying career officials who will remain in positions of responsibility on an acting basis until Senate confirmation process is complete for incoming officials. 

"We are expecting shortly a plan from incoming administration identifying career officials who will remain in positions of responsibility on an acting basis until Senate confirmation process is complete for incoming officials.  As a result, we are cancelling all planned travel this week, including Secretary’s trip to Europe," according to statement. 

Even though official reason remains that Pompeo cancelled trip to coordinate with transition team, or top officials have said that cancellation was because European leaders were critical of Donald Trump’s role in last week’s storming of Capitol building. top US official was set to see Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn, who had called Trump “criminal” for inciting attack. Asselborn had described outgoing US President as a “political pyromaniac who must be brought before a court”. 

Luxembourg PM Xavier Bettel had also similar deunce riots in Washington. He had tweeted saying that violence against Capitol is a heius attack. He added, “We trust in strength of American people and institutions to overcome se times of division & look to President-elect @JoeBiden to take on this task”. Furr, Belgian deputy PM and foreign minister Sophie Wilmes also called Capitol siege “shocking”. 

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US ambassador’s trip to Taiwan cancelled 

Meanwhile, apart from Pompeo, US State Department also cancelled planned Taiwan visit by its UN ambassador that has drawn strong opposition and a warning from China. department anunced it was cancelling all senior-level overseas travels in a decision to assist with transition to next administration. US Ambassador to UN Kelly Craft was due to begin a three-day visit Wednesday, which would have involved meetings with Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen and Foreign Minister Joseph Wu as well as delivering a speech. 

State Department insisted that ncy was “well along in its transition efforts with President-elect Biden’s team.  We are fully committed to completion of a smooth and orderly transition process to be finalized over next 8 days. Both Department and President-elect’s team have been fully engd for several weeks toward this end, and we are pleased with level of cooperation and professionalism that has been displayed”. 

(Im: AP) 

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