Pompeo Condemns Turkey’s ‘Provocations’ in Several States

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo puts on a mask before boarding a plane at Istanbul Airport in Turkey, November 17, 2020. Patrick Semansky, AP
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo puts on a mask before boarding a plane at Istanbul Airport in Turkey, November 17, 2020. Patrick Semansky, AP
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Pompeo Condemns Turkey’s ‘Provocations’ in Several States

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo puts on a mask before boarding a plane at Istanbul Airport in Turkey, November 17, 2020. Patrick Semansky, AP
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo puts on a mask before boarding a plane at Istanbul Airport in Turkey, November 17, 2020. Patrick Semansky, AP

A verbal dispute has erupted between outgoing US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the Turkish foreign minister over Washington’s rejection of Ankara’s interventions and positions in the eastern Mediterranean, Libya, Syria and the Karabakh region.

The dispute erupted during a videoconference of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) foreign ministers.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg expressed willingness to exert efforts to reduce tension between Ankara and Athens while Turkey announced that it was ready for an unconditional dialogue.
But Pompeo criticized Turkey, accusing it of not adhering to NATO’s principles and undermining its cohesion.

The US official described Ankara’s activities in the Eastern Mediterranean, Libya, Syria and Karabakh as "provocative.”

Pompeo said "Turkey's possession of the S-400 missile system was a gift to Russia, from an ally in the NATO.”

In his statement during the videoconference meeting held on Tuesday night, the US Secretary of State said the military de-confliction mechanism agreed upon between Athens and Ankara in October is suspended due to Turkey.

In return, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu accused his US counterpart of contacting European allies and urging them to align themselves against Turkey, to become blindly biased to Greece in regional conflicts, and refuse to sell US Patriot anti-aircraft weapons to Ankara, which was forced to buy the S-400 system from Russia.

Cavusoglu said the US supports what he called “Kurdish terrorist organizations” in Syria, referring to the Kurdish People's Protection Units, while Turkey is fighting ISIS.

The Turkish official added that the United States and France have contributed to the exacerbation of the conflict in the Karabakh region by supporting Armenia in the war that Azerbaijan won with Turkish military support.

In response to Cavusoglu's accusation against Pompeo and the United States on Greece, Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias replied: "If the Greek position is extreme, then international law is as well."

Meanwhile, the head of the Turkish Presidency's Communication Department, Fakhruddin Altun, said his country had received unprecedented "hostile" treatment from Washington in recent years, and that Ankara's view of the US as a NATO ally did not change despite that.

On the other hand, Cavusoglu praised Germany for playing the role of "honest mediator" in its attempt to mediate in the conflicts in the Mediterranean, but at the same time he accused it of "piracy", due to the German inspection of a Turkish cargo ship, off the Libyan coast.

For his part, Stoltenberg avoided commenting on the Pompeo-Cavusoglu exchange of verbal dispute, indicating instead that NATO's mechanism helped reduce the conflict between Athens and Ankara.
"We have seen that the de-confliction mechanism helped reduce the risk of accidents between the Greek and Turkish armies," he said.

He emphasized that the solution lies on the mediation efforts led by Germany and the political will of Greece and Turkey.



Rubio to Meet China's Wang on Sidelines of ASEAN Talks

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio takes part in a media briefing during the 58th Association of Southeast Asian Nations Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Kuala Lumpur on July 10, 2025. Mandel NGAN / POOL/AFP
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio takes part in a media briefing during the 58th Association of Southeast Asian Nations Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Kuala Lumpur on July 10, 2025. Mandel NGAN / POOL/AFP
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Rubio to Meet China's Wang on Sidelines of ASEAN Talks

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio takes part in a media briefing during the 58th Association of Southeast Asian Nations Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Kuala Lumpur on July 10, 2025. Mandel NGAN / POOL/AFP
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio takes part in a media briefing during the 58th Association of Southeast Asian Nations Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Kuala Lumpur on July 10, 2025. Mandel NGAN / POOL/AFP

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will meet his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on Friday on the sidelines of ASEAN talks in Malaysia where Washington's tariffs are in sharp focus.

Rubio and Wang's first face-to-face meeting since US President Donald Trump returned to office comes as Washington and Beijing are locked in disputes on everything from trade and fentanyl to Taiwan and technology.

Rubio, a longtime China hawk, and Wang are in Kuala Lumpur for a gathering of foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which Japan, South Korea and Australia are also attending.

US officials said ahead of Rubio's first trip to the region as secretary of state that Washington was "prioritizing" its commitment to East and Southeast Asia.

Rubio said Thursday the United States has "no intention of abandoning" the Asia-Pacific region.

But US tariffs have overshadowed the conference and Rubio has sought to placate Asian trade partners, saying talks were ongoing and might result in "better" rates than for the rest of the world.

Trump has threatened punitive tariffs ranging from 20 to 50 percent against more than 20 countries, many of them in Asia, if they do not strike deals with Washington by August 1.

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said this week that tariffs were being used as "sharpened instruments of geopolitical rivalry".

Wang on Thursday called for a "fairer and more reasonable" international order.

"At the same time, we are also confronted with challenges such as the impact of unilateral protectionism and the abuse of tariffs by a certain major country," Wang said.

Tensions between Washington and Beijing have ratcheted up since Trump took office in January, with both countries engaging in a tariff war that briefly sent duties on each other's exports sky-high.

At one point the United States hit China with additional levies of 145 percent on its goods as both sides engaged in tit-for-tat escalation. China's countermeasures on US goods reached 125 percent.

Beijing and Washington agreed in May to temporarily slash their staggeringly high tariffs -- an outcome Trump dubbed a "total reset".

- Taiwan, South China Sea -

Before becoming Secretary of State in January, Rubio had already been one of the most vocal critics of China on the American political stage for many years.

Rubio and Wang are also likely to discuss US concerns over China's expansionary behavior in the South China Sea and Beijing's growing military pressure on Taiwan.

China claims the democratic self-ruled island as part of its territory and has threatened to use force to bring it under its control.

Like most countries, Washington has no formal diplomatic relations with the island.

However, the United States is Taiwan's biggest arms supplier and has shown increasing support for Taipei in the face of Beijing's growing military pressure on the island in recent years.

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth accused China in late May of "credibly preparing to potentially use military force to alter the balance of power" in the Asia-Pacific region.

He also claimed that Beijing "trains every day" to invade Taiwan.

In response, Chinese diplomats accused the United States of using the Taiwan issue to "contain China" and called on Washington to stop "playing with fire".