Pompeo meets Jaishankar ahead of Sri Lanka visit

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo opened talks in India on Monday, kicking off a four-country Asia tour that includes Sri Lanka, AFP reported.

Pompeo and US Defense Secretary Mark Esper, who is joining him for the two-day visit, will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday.

Pompeo opened his trip with talks and a dinner with External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, who tweeted that relations between the emerging allies have “grown substantially in every domain.”

The State Department said that the two top diplomats discussed “regional security issues” and collaboration on a vaccine against COVID-19, which has hit the two countries hard.

Pompeo will go on from India to Sri Lanka, the Maldives and Indonesia, all of which have a key role in Indian Ocean maritime traffic where China has cast a greater shadow.

The US secretary of state said ahead of the trip that his meetings would “include discussions on how free nations can work together to thwart threats posed by the Chinese Communist Party.”