US Secretary of state to visit Sri Lanka

The US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is expected to arrive in Sri Lanka, Foreign Secretary Prof. Jayanath Colombage said. Mike Pompeo is due in two weeks, Sunday Times reported quoting sources. Secretary Pompeo, who postponed a previous scheduled visit last year to Sri Lanka, is expected to arrive on October 27. It will be the highest-level US government official of cabinet rank to visit the country since one of his predecessors, John Kerry, visited Sri Lanka in 2015. "No official travel has been confirmed at this time. Notice of any high-level travel would be announced by the Department of State once a trip is officially confirmed", US Embassy in Colombo said. Pompeo will arrive in Sri Lanka breaking away from an official visit to New Delhi where he is to accompany his colleague, the US Defence Secretary Mark Esper, for a major military cooperation agreement expected to be signed between the US and India as part of an anti-China Alliance with Japan and Australia, Sunday Times reported. The stalled negotiations on the US$ 480 million Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) grant to Sri Lanka are likely to be on the agenda for discussions with President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa during the visit. Sunday Times reported added. Meanwhile, Mike Pompeo is reported to have said that China has begun to amass huge forces against India in the North. He has urged for closer ties with India as he warned of China's growing might on its doorstep, amid a flurry of diplomacy between the world's two largest democracies. "The world has awakened. The tide's begun to turn. And the United States under President Trump's leadership has now built out a coalition that will push back against the threat," Indian media, quoting Pompeo reported.