Pompeo snubs meeting Merkel & Maas citing unknown ‘pressing issues’

7 May, 2019 09:31 / Updated 5 years ago

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has scrapped plans for a Tuesday meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Foreign Minister Heiko Maas citing unspecified “pressing issues.”

“Unfortunately, we must reschedule the Berlin meetings due to pressing issues. We look forward to rescheduling this important set of meetings. The Secretary looks forward to being in Berlin soon,” the US Embassy cited a State Department spokesperson as saying.

Neither Merkel’s nor Mass’s office have issued a formal statement on the last-minute cancellation yet.

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Pompeo attended a meeting of the Arctic Council in Finland where he discussed regional development, "Russian military expansion" and "Chinese investment" among other topics during an address in which he described the Arctic as "an arena of global power & competition."

Commenting on Pompeo’s reason for cancelling the meeting, Willy Wimmer, the former vice president of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, said it could potentially be differences between the US and Germany regarding the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project.

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