'US will not shirk its duty as world’s top humanitarian aid provider'
CORONAVIRUS | How important is it for the US to show its leadership in dealing with Covid-19? How much of this is affected by the way the US is struggling to contain it back home?
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said his country has been and will always continue to be world’s largest humanitarian assistance provider.
“It’s something that’s in our tradition and you can look at the math – it is unambiguous. Whether it is direct bilateral assistance to other countries or a role in the UN (United Nations) or WHO (World Health Organisation) or any other multilateral organisation, the United States leads the way...
CORONAVIRUS | How important is it for the US to show its leadership in dealing with Covid-19? How much of this is affected by the way the US is struggling to contain it back home?
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said his country has been and will always continue to be world’s largest humanitarian assistance provider.
“It’s something that’s in our tradition and you can look at the math – it is unambiguous. Whether it is direct bilateral assistance to other countries or a role in the UN (United Nations) or WHO (World Health Organisation) or any other multilateral organisation, the United States leads the way.
“I am very confident that this will be the truth with respect to Covid-19. We care about these people, we want to support them. We want to reduce the risk to these people and the US will do what we always do best,” he added.
Pompeo was speaking to Malaysiakini via a live telephone conference alongside a number of other media outlets from the Asia-Pacific region. These included one media outlet each from Thailand, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and two from Japan as well as the Voice of America.
He was speaking as part of a continued initiative to carry out programmes with numerous nations in the Asia Pacific region in relation to containing the spread of Covid-19.
“My deputy is on phone calls every week with countries throughout the Indo-Pacific region. Not just South East Asia and East Asia, but South Central Asia as well.
“We are very concerned with the spread of the virus. We announced last week a very significant piece of assistance – some US$274 million that will go across 64 priority countries.
“Much of that will head to the Indo pacific region to help the countries push back technically to maintain the ability to track the disease. This will go from Bangladesh to Burma to India, Kazakhstan, just about every place in the region - the United States will be there as the largest partner helping those countries push their way through what will be challenging times that remain particularly for those who don’t have healthcare infrastructure.”
Pompeo (photo) said the US was particularly committed towards helping countries that are unlikely to be able to match the challenge ahead without significant support.
“When you think about how we will collectively respond to this, one of the most important things is that the US will deliver good economic outcomes. The economies that have been affected adversely by this virus.
“If you go back through history whether it’s the Asia Pacific in the 1960s or the Asian Tigers in the 1990s, the US has always brought our best – investing, foreign direct investment, technology that we have moved into this region that has lifted out of poverty tens of millions of people in Asia.
“I am confident in the aftermath of this, not only will the US be there with humanitarian assistance but American ingenuity, entrepreneurship, private sector will show up in these countries and assist these people getting business back online, employment back to appropriate levels and economies back on track,” he added.
US gov't and private sector will step up
Pompeo said both the US government and the American private sector would step up.
When asked about the sharing of intelligence between the US and its partners, Pompeo was rather less forthcoming saying simply: “As a former CIA director, I am not going to answer a single thing about intelligence. We will help each other deliver positive outcomes."
Pompeo served as a hardline Republican congressperson representing Kansas’ 4th district before US President Donald Trump appointed him to direct the CIA in January 2017 and then to head the State Department in April 2018.
Pompeo was upbeat about the recent signing of the Taiwan Allies International Protection and Enhancement Initiative (TAIPEI) Act, a bill expressing Washington’s support for Taiwan in strengthening its relationships with countries around the world.
The legislation is also perceived as a sideways swipe at Beijing which views Taipei as a renegade province.
“The president signed it quite happily. He was pleased with the contents of it. The responsibility now falls to the US government to comply with each and every component of that and that includes working to make sure that in every organisation that has content that is related to what is taking place inside of Taiwan that we do our best to fully comply.
“We think it’s important and we were pleased that that piece of legislation made it out of the Congress and onto the president’s desk last week,” said Pompeo.
The secretary of state also dodged a poser over North Korea which issued a statement yesterday saying that Trump had sent a letter offering assistance with Covid-19 but that Pompeo’s remarks calling for more pressure on North Korea about its nuclear programme had caused them to lose interest in any dialogue at this point.
“The president’s position on North Korea and mine have been in locked step since the first day I became secretary of state. We’ve done our level best to engage them since I made my first visit there as secretary of state to conduct a dialogue.
“When the two leaders met in Singapore for the first time, they both committed to a number of things including the denuclearisation of North Korea, a brighter future for the people of North Korea, all of the things that we remember so well. We have been trying very diligently from the American side to move forward in negotiations.
“Until we get to the point where we have made official progress, the sanctions, not American sanctions but the UN Security Council resolutions will continue to be enforced and in place. And we hope that we will get this opportunity to sit down with the North Korean leadership again and begin to chart a passage forward,” said Pompeo.
He said it was important that countries learn the right lessons from the Covid-19 outbreak.
“I think every nation will take a look at how they reacted. Whether they had the structure right, the resources, thought about the risk.
“Each country has an obligation to its citizens to conduct that kind of evaluation.
"Every nation will have to look at the resources they expended. Many nations will now see that President Trump has this right – that reciprocity and fairness in trade are important. I think every country will see that there was some impact from imbalances in trade and will try to get it right,” said Pompeo.
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