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Outgoing US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo canceled his last trip abroad. As his office announced Tuesday, Pompeo wants to support a “smooth transition” into Joe Biden’s future administration. For this reason, a visit to NATO in Brussels scheduled for Wednesday was canceled.
Pompeo originally wanted to meet with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Wednesday night. A meeting with Belgian Foreign Minister Sophie Wilmès was scheduled for Thursday.
There will also be no visit to Pompeo’s counterpart Jean Asselborn in Luxembourg, as confirmed by a Luxembourg government representative to the AFP news agency. Luxembourg’s foreign minister had described US President Donald Trump as “criminals” and “political arsonists” after the assault on Capitol Hill by Trump supporters.
Asselborn asked radio station RTL on Thursday that the president be brought to justice. He accused Trump of ignoring the Constitution of the United States with his unsubstantiated allegations of fraud in the presidential elections leading to a “September 11 against democracy.”
The Reuters news agency, citing EU diplomats, reports that the background to Pompeo’s rejection is that the Europeans turned their backs on Pompeo. Apart from the originally planned meeting with Asselborn, there were no further discussions with EU representatives on the agenda. One of the diplomats said, according to Reuters, that a meeting with Pompeo would embarrass US allies after the Capitol storm.
