Mike Pompeo

Friday August 23, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday August 23, 2019

During Ottawa visit, Pompeo attacks China for detaining 2 Canadians

May 8, 2019

Canada will have the support of the United States until the two Canadians detained in China “are returned to their families,” U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo promised Thursday while on a visit to Ottawa.

Pompeo, a high-profile member of the Trump administration, met with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his counterpart Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland ahead of the G7 summit in France this weekend.

December 12, 2018

Canada has been soliciting help from foreign allies in the ongoing dispute with China to secure the release of businessman Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, a former diplomat on leave. The two were detained in China late last year after Canadian officials arrested Chinese telecom executive Meng Wanzhou at the Vancouver airport to face possible extradition to the United States.

“Our team is focused on helping those two Canadians be released. China needs to honour the commitments it’s made to the world, and it is our expectation they’ll do so, and we’re working on it diligently,” said Pompeo during a brief photo opportunity Thursday morning.

Pompeo also made a point of insisting that the cases of Kovrig and Spavor shouldn’t be compared to Meng’s extradition case.

“[China] wants to talk about these two as if they are equivalent, as if they are morally similar, which they fundamentally are not,” he said during a media availability on Thursday afternoon.

“These are fundamentally different matters than the Canadian decision to use their due process and the rule of law to behave in a way that’s deeply consistent with the way decent nations work.”

The U.S., through a one-on-one conversation between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping and “other diplomatic activity,” has told Beijing directly the arrest of the two Canadians was inappropriate, said Pompeo.

“We’ll continue to do that until such time as they’re home and returned to their families,” he said. (CBC)  

 

Wednesday May 8, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday May 8, 2019

Mike Pompeo rejects Canada’s claims to Northwest Passage as ‘illegitimate

January 27, 2006

Mike Pompeo, the US secretary of state, has rejected Canada’s claims to the Northwest Passage as “illegitimate”, in a high-profile foreign policy speech that prompted frustration and surprise among experts and government officials.

Delegates from Arctic nations – Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the US – had gathered in Finland to discuss balancing climate change with resource development in the region.

“No one denies Russia has significant Arctic interests,” Pompeo told delegates of the Arctic Council on Monday. “We recognize that Russia is not the only nation making illegitimate claims: the US has a long contested feud with Canada over sovereign claims through the Northwest Passage.”

April 1, 1999

The Arctic route linking the Atlantic and the Pacific offers a potential shortcut between Europe and China. Although the passage remains ice-bound for much of the year, it has become increasingly usable because of global warming and the retreat of Arctic sea ice.

While the United States has long maintained that the route, often blocked by sea ice, lies in international waters, Canada has argued the waters pass through sovereign territory.

Foreign affairs minister Chrystia Freeland dismissed Pompeo’s remarks after a meeting with her American counterpart.

“Canada is very clear about the Northwest Passage being Canadian. There is both a very strong and geographic connection with Canada,” Freeland told reporters.

Michael Byers, a professor of political science at the University of British Columbia and author of International Law and the Arctic, said Pompeo’s remarks were consistent with US policy. But he said the “belligerent” speech contained numerous,“factual mistakes and logical inconsistencies”.

July 26, 2007

Byers said: “He talked about Chinese investments in infrastructure in the Canadian Arctic, [but] there are none. That was a straight-out factual misstatement.”

Pompeo also came in for criticism for enthusing about the “abundance” of resources available for extracting in the Arctic as climate change causing ice to retreat. “Steady reductions in sea ice are opening new passageways and new opportunities for trade, that can potentially slashing the time it takes for ships to travel between Asia and the West by as much as 20 days,” he said.

The council meeting ended without a joint final statement from council members, after the US delegation balked at the inclusion of the phrase “climate change”.It marked the first time the Arctic Council had failed to produce a declaration since 1996.

“I actually celebrate the fact that the seven other countries stood up to the Trump administration” said Byers. “We’re talking about about six close allies of the United States – four of them Nato partners – drawing a line in the snow saying you cannot have a declaration without acknowledging the crisis of climate change.” (Source: The Guardian)