Pompeo in Japan to boost ties with Asian allies to counter China

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday began meetings in Tokyo with his counterparts from Australia, India and Japan, as Washington looks to solidify support among regional allies as its relationship with China deteriorates. The trip, his first to the region since July 2019, was reduced to a single full day in Japan, after US President Donald Trump was diagnosed with COVID-19. Pompeo had previously planned to go to Mongolia and South Korea as well. Pompeo’s trip comes at a time when Washington and Beijing, the world’s top two economies, are at loggerheads over a wide range of issues from Beijing’s handling of the coronavirus to its imposition of a new security law in Hong Kong and ambitions in the South China Sea. Washington sees the meeting of the so-called Quad grouping of foreign ministers as a platform to strengthen its position with regional allies. style="width: 100%; height: 100%; position: absolute; top: 0; bottom: 0; right: 0; left: 0;">