Secretary Mike Pompeo and China’s Wang Yi To Make Parallel Visits to Russia

May 9, 2019 (EIRNS)—In separate, hastily-announced parallel visits, both U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and China’s Foreign Minister and State Councillor Wang Yi will be visiting Russia over May 12-13. The Russian Foreign Ministry announced yesterday that Wang Yi is to visit May 12-13, and meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on May 13 in Sochi. Also yesterday, the Ministry announced that Pompeo is to visit May 13-14 at the request of the United States, meet Lavrov on May 14, and possibly meet President Vladimir Putin.

The subjects the Ministry announced for the Wang Yi meeting were Venezuela, the Korean Peninsula, Syria, Afghanistan, and Iran, in addition to Chinese President Xi Jinping’s upcoming visit to Russia and participation in the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. Cuba’s Prensa Latina quoted the Russian Foreign Ministry that Venezuela, Syria and Ukraine would be discussed in the Lavrov-Pompeo meeting.

The Ministry also told TASS that “Russia is ready to restart talks on strategic stability and consider concrete proposals in the context of Donald Trump’s statements on a new nuclear disarmament treaty.” It is of interest that President Donald Trump advocated that China be party to the new treaty along with the United States and Russia.