Pompeo Heads to Ukraine Amid Trump Impeachment Trial

Here is today’s Foreign Policy brief: U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo travels to Ukraine, the WHO again considers declaring a global health emergency, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas plans to speak at the U.N. Security Council.

If you would like to receive Morning Brief in your inbox every weekday, please sign up here.

Later today, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will arrive in Kyiv, where he aims to dismiss suggestions that there are policy disagreements between U.S. President Donald Trump, Congress, the State Department, and the intelligence community when it comes to Ukraine. The trip comes after an explosive interview with NPR—in which Pompeo was quoted as saying, “Do you think Americans care about Ukraine?”—and amid Trump’s impeachment trial in the U.S. Senate, which directly involves Ukraine.

Pompeo’s visit—which was rescheduled amid heightened tensions with Iran earlier this month—could be tricky, and his policy pitch is likely to be a tough sell. He will likely emphasize U.S. support for Ukraine in its war with Russian separatists in the east, FP’s Reid Standish and Robbie Gramer report. Pompeo will meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as well as Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko and Defense Minister Andriy Zagorodnyuk on Friday.

British stopover. The five-country trip began this week with a stop in the United Kingdom. Before flying to Kyiv today, the secretary of state was scheduled to meet British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Pompeo will likely push Johnson on the issue of security and the Chinese firm Huawei, which the U.K. announced it would allow on its 5G wireless networks. Pompeo will also visit Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan after Ukraine.

Will Zelensky get a White House meeting? Zelensky is still hoping for a meeting at the White House, while Ukraine’s political elite is frustrated that Trump’s impeachment has derailed relations between the countries, the Washington Post reports. Writing in Foreign Policy this week, former U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine Kurt Volker called on Pompeo to set a date for Zelensky’s White House visit.

WHO revisits declaring a global health emergency. The World Health Organization’s committee of experts meets again today to reconsider declaring a global emergency over China’s coronavirus outbreak. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the group is particularly concerned about human-to-human transmission in countries beyond China, such as Germany, Vietnam, and Japan. Meanwhile, governments are taking action. Hong Kong suspended cross-border travel to the mainland via train or ferry from today, with flights significantly reduced. Various international airlines are canceling flights, too.

Palestinians to push U.N. to take action over peace plan. After U.S. President Donald Trump unveiled his long-delayed Middle East peace plan at the White House on Tuesday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas plans to speak at the U.N. Security Council to voice his opposition to the proposal, which undermines Palestinian hopes for sovereignty and gives Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a boost. If the United States vetoes the Palestinians’ Security Council resolution to condemn the plan—which is likely—Abbas could call an emergency General Assembly Session, forcing a nonbinding vote.

Venezuelan president proposes resuming ties with Colombia. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro said Wednesday that he was open to resuming consular relations with Colombia after suspending ties last year. The two countries are in the midst of a standoff over a fugitive Colombian politician recently captured in Venezuela. Colombia is the primary destination for Venezuelans fleeing political and economic crisis. On Wednesday, the Colombian government announced it would grant hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan migrants work permits, bringing them into the legal economy.

The death of an environmental activist. The Mexican environmental activist Homero Gómez González was found dead on Wednesday, more than two weeks after his disappearance. Gómez González was a well-known defenders of Mexico’s monarch butterfly population, fighting back against loggers threatening their habitat. Fellow activists suspect the involvement of loggers and criminal groups in his death.

Mali’s army. The prime minister of Mali announced on Wednesday that the country would increase the size of its army by 50 percent this year—adding 10,000 soldiers—as it combats violent Islamist extremists. France intervened in the country in 2013, but jihadist attacks have increased again, with the United States threatening to cut its military presence in the Sahel region.

Democratic dissatisfaction. A recent survey by the University of Cambridge finds that the number of people not satisfied with the state of democracy in various countries is the highest it’s been in 25 years. The survey included residents of both developed and developing countries, but with the increase in dissatisfaction attributed to those in developed countries.

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg said Wednesday that she has applied to trademark her name, as well as the Fridays for Future movement she started in 2018. Doing so would allow her to take legal action against those seeking to using her name for illegitimate purposes, particularly commercial ones. “I and the other school strikers have absolutely no interest in trademarks,” Thunberg wrote on Instagram. “But unfortunately it needs to be done.”

That’s it for today.

For more from FP, visit foreignpolicy.com, subscribe here, or sign up for our other newsletters. Send your tips, comments, questions, or corrections to morningbrief@foreignpolicy.com.