Pompeo shortens Asia trip; cuts visits to Mongolia and South Korea

USSecretary of State MikePompeodeparted for Japan on Sundaybut will not go to Mongolia and South Korea as originally planned, the State Department said, after President Donald Trump was diagnosed and hospitalized due to the coronavirus.

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Initially,Pompeoplanned to visit all three countries between October4 and October8. He is still set to leave for Tokyo on Sunday but will be returning to Washington on October6 after consultations with his Japanese counterparts and attending a wider meeting with foreign ministers of India and Australia.

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In a statement, the State Department saidPompeowas expecting to travel to Asia again in October and will work to reschedule the visits in his original itinerary.

Pompeo's visit to East Asia, his first to the region in over a year, comes at a time when USties with Beijing are at their worst in decades. Apart from Trump, the coronavirus has infected his wife Melania and several Republican senators, as well as millions of other Americans.

Anti-China protests erupted in Mongolia last week inUlaanbaatardemanded the release of ethnic Mongolian arrested in China.

Pompeo has previously criticised China's coercive attempts to assimilate local minorities into the dominant Han population.

Earlier, protests have also erupted in Chuinese province of Inner Mongolia after Chinese government took a decision to teach politics, history, and literature in Mandarin rather than the local language. The Chinese province of Inner Mongolia shares borders with Mongolia.