WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with President-elect Joe Biden’s nominee for U.S. top diplomat, Antony Blinken, on Friday to facilitate an orderly transition, meeting just days after U.S. President Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in a bid to overturn his election defeat.
The meeting, described by a senior State Department official as “very productive,” comes just over a week before Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20. The official said Pompeo met with Blinken to “facilitate an orderly transition, and to ensure American interests are protected abroad.”
“Secretary Pompeo and Secretary-nominee Blinken, as well as their teams, will continue to work together on behalf of America throughout the transition,” the official said in a statement.
A spokesman for Biden’s transition team declined to comment. It was unclear if Pompeo met in person or virtually.
Blinken on Dec. 17 went to the State Department for the first time since the November election, when he took part in meetings and briefings in preparation to take over as Secretary of State. Pompeo was quarantining at the time after coming in contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19.
(Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis, Mohammad Zargham and Humeyra Pamuk; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
