August 3, 2018

SINGAPORE — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged Turkey to release an imprisoned American pastor whose case has been a sore point between Ankara and Washington, and acknowledged that it will take a long time to achieve the denuclearization of North Korea.

Speaking to reporters aboard his plane en route to Singapore from Malaysia, Pompeo said he planned to raise the detention of the pastor, Andrew Brunson, and others jailed in Turkey when he met with Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on the sidelines of a conference of 27 Asian nations.

Pompeo’s three-day trip to Asia, including a stop at the ministerial meeting in Singapore of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), is part of a U.S. effort to boost trade ties with the region, despite withdrawing from the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade agreement.

Read more:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/pompeo-pushes-us-vision-for-trade-in-malaysia/2018/08/02/a2565972-6909-4af3-95af-7383cede6146_story.html?utm_term=.068cb4d5e9af