Protests and presidential plans: Pompeo cancels Lanka visit

The cancellations came one after another.

The first was from the United States Embassy on Wednesday. It said that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s visit to Colombo has been called off “due to unavoidable scheduling conflicts during his upcoming visit to the Indo- Pacific region that includes accompanying President Donald J. Trump to the G20 Summit in Japan.”

Within barely hours, President Maithripala Sirisena directed officials to re- schedule his planned visits to Cambodia ( June 25) and Laos (June 26 and 27). In other words, President Sirisena would not have been available to meet Mike Pompeo when he was in Sri Lanka.

The trip to Cambodia was official. However, the trip to Laos was private to see places of Buddhist interest, but the government there had converted it to an official one.

Mr. Pompeo’s visit lasting just over three and half hours was to include a trip to a demining area in Trincomalee. He was due to fly direct from New Delhi and travel thereafter in his special aircraft to Japan.

Opposition groups had planned two protest meetings in Colombo, one at the New Town Hall and another in an unknown location in the City. They had also arranged for the closure of shops and hoisting black flags when he visited Trincomalee.

A US Embassy statement said, “Secretary Pompeo regrets that he is no longer able to visit Colombo at this time. He hopes to travel to Sri Lanka at a later date to underscore our strong partnership with Sri Lanka, which is rooted in a commitment to democracy, economic growth and a free, open Indo- Pacific region.”