'We will simply disconnect': Mike Pompeo and the Australian TV appearance that caused a diplomatic s
‘We will simply disconnect’: Mike Pompeo and the Australian TV appearance that caused a diplomatic storm
A comment by the US secretary of state about Victoria’s belt and road project has ricocheted through Parliament House and the US embassy
Daniel Hurst
@danielhurstbne
Mon 25 May 2020 03.10 EDT
When US secretary of state Mike Pompeo popped up on Australian television over the weekend it was not to be interviewed by the national broadcaster or indeed one of the main TV channels.
Instead he chose to appear on a fringe show with a relatively tiny audience hosted by a self-styled “outsider” who loves Donald Trump’s tweets almost as much as he loves railing against “the left”.
To the aides who booked the interview with one of the conservative commentators on Rupert Murdoch’s Sky news channel, this may have seemed a quirky but low-risk environment: Pompeo was unlikely to face tough questioning about the Trump administration’s own performance during the Covid-19 crisis and would be given space to criticise China’s lack of transparency over the origins of the pandemic.
Imagine the surprise in the US state department and in the halls of power in Australia, then, when Pompeo appeared to leave open the possibility of suspending some forms of information sharing with Australia, a steadfast American ally, over the state of Victoria’s possible future involvement with Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative.
More:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/may/25/we-will-simply-disconnect-mike-pompeo-and-the-australian-tv-appearance-that-caused-a-diplomatic-storm
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