Pompeo dials Jaishankar, others to counter China

Sandeep Dikshit

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 12

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar discussed the Covid impact in a US-led initiative late on Monday that also involved his counterparts from Australia, Brazil, Israel, Japan and South Korea.

The confabulations via video-conferencing are part of a concerted drive by the US to match China in aid disbursement and corner it politically for lack of transparency during the early stages of the Covid outbreak.

A US State Department readout pointed out that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his six counterparts discussed the importance of international cooperation, transparency, and accountability in combating the pandemic and in addressing its causes. The US is accusing China of not being accountable for the spread of the disease all over the world and for hiding the spread of epidemic during the initial days.

The leaders also discussed collaboration toward preventing future global health crises, reaffirming the importance of the rules-based international order.

The US has been on a publicity binge with its local missions actively pushing steps being taken by Washington’s all over the world. Each missive unfailingly mentions in publicity about its various cooperation initiatives – with Asia Pacific, trans-Atlantic, etc., – that the US is the world’s largest aid giver.

China, too, has been upfront in publicising the dispatch of masks, personal protection equipment and medicines to countries around the world. At the same time, it has been extremely proactive in countering insinuations about opaqueness from the US Government as well as in pushing back at suggestions that call for the inclusion of Taiwan in the World Health Assembly general conference.

India has refrained from entering the US-China spat till it is able to counter the Covid epidemic, suggest sources.

However, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has already spoken of the need for reforms in the World Health Organisation.

Meanwhile, with US leaders showing the way, the customary face-to-face diplomacy that began with its Special Envoy for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad visiting Qatar, India and Pakistan is set to continue. Pompeo will travel to Israel on Wednesday to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.