Washington – The United States canceled last-minute travel by top envoys to visit allies in Europe and Taiwan on Tuesday, in a sudden diplomatic turnaround in the chaotic final days of the Trump administration. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was due to make one last official visit to Europe while Kelly Craft, sent from Washington to the UN, would land in Taiwan on Wednesday afternoon.
But the visits were suddenly canceled a week before Democrat Joe Biden took office and while President Donald Trump faces a second almost certain impeachment on charges of inciting his supporters to invade Congress last week.
The U-turn sums up the turbulent transition period that has enveloped Washington since Biden’s victory in the November elections.
But it also allows Europe and Taiwan to avoid hosting what could have been potentially strange delegations from an outgoing government.
“It was too late for such a visit,” Maggie Lewis, an analyst at Seton Hall law school in Taiwan, told AFP. “It is appropriate to focus on the next government, rather than the final days of the Trump administration.”
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The canceled trips end four tumultuous years of foreign policy under Trump, who tested Washington’s traditional allies in Europe and Asia.
The two-day stay in Europe would have been Pompeo’s last trip abroad, but the State Department announced that he would stay home to ensure a “smooth and orderly” transition. The US Mission to the UN confirmed to CBS News’ Pamela Falk that the cancellation of the State Department’s trip would include Ambassador Craft’s trip to Taiwan.
Pompeo was not invited?
Pompeo’s trip already seemed to have limited diplomatic value, with the Secretary of State not scheduled to meet with any senior EU official in Brussels.
In Luxembourg, an official told AFP on condition of anonymity that part of Pompeo’s trip was canceled after Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn called Trump a “criminal” in comments on RTL radio.
Asselborn described Trump as a “political pyromaniac who must be brought to justice” because of last week’s attack on the United States Capitol by his supporters.
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Reuters news agency, citing anonymous European diplomatic officials, said on Wednesday that Pompeo’s visits to Brussels and Luxembourg were canceled after Asselborn and EU officials refused to schedule meetings with the top American diplomat.
Pompeo had a meeting scheduled for Brussels with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg during a dinner on Wednesday, and then for a meeting with Belgian Chancellor Sophie Wilmes.
Pompeo remained totally loyal to Trump, despite the resignations of a number of cabinet colleagues and calls to force the president to step down because of the attack on the Capitol.
High-risk ties with Taiwan
Craft’s planned visit to Taiwan came at an extremely dangerous time for autonomous democracy. Authoritarian China considers Taiwan its own territory and promised to seize it one day, by force if necessary.
Beijing’s saber-rattling hit new heights with Chinese jets making a record 380 forays into Taiwan’s defense zone last year to signal anger over Washington’s growing relationship with Taipei during the Trump years.
The stakes are high. A wrong move in the Taiwan Strait could trigger a conflict between two nuclear-powered economic superpowers, something the Biden government will have to face.
The US switched diplomatic recognition to Beijing in 1979, but remains Taipei’s main unofficial ally and is forced by Congress to sell the island’s weapons to defend itself.
While Trump fought with China on a range of issues, from coronavirus to trade and national security, Taipei became a way of poking Beijing in the eye.
During his tenure, Mr. Trump signed about $ 18 billion in major arms deals for Taiwan and increased the frequency of official visits, including sending a cabinet official last year, the highest-level delegation since 1979.
Then, on Sunday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared that he was lifting “complex internal restrictions” that limited official contacts with Taiwan. Beijing promptly warned that Washington “would receive a resolute counterattack from China” on the move and “pay a high price “if Craft visited.
Protecting Taiwan, one of Asia’s most progressive democracies, from Chinese invasion has become a rare two-party issue in Washington.
But Biden, who prefers a much less conflicting diplomatic style than Trump, has given little detail about how his policy for Taiwan might be.
Bonnie Glaser, a Taiwan and China expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Taipei would be “disappointed, but also somewhat relieved” at Craft’s last-minute cancellation.
“Taiwan does not want to create friction with the new administration,” she told AFP.