OTTAWA (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday assured Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that American officials were working to free two Canadian men who have been held by China since late last year.
The pair, now facing espionage charges, were detained after Canadian police picked up Huawei Technologies Co Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver last December on a U.S. arrest warrant.
Trudeau’s government has pressed Washington to do more for the men. Pompeo said U.S. President Donald Trump had raised the case directly with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a meeting in late June.
“Please do note that our team is focused on helping those two Canadians be released,” Pompeo said at the start of a meeting in Ottawa with Trudeau and Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland. “It’s wrong that they are being held.”
Pompeo later said the United States had made clear from the start that the detention of the two men had been inappropriate.
“We have engaged in other diplomatic activity, trying to help make the case for the release of these two,” he told a news conference at the end of the talks.
“We will continue to do that until such time as they are home and have been returned to their families.”
Pompeo was visiting Ottawa for the day ahead of a weekend summit of the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations in France where relations with China are set to be discussed.
The United States is locked in a trade war with China that is upsetting world markets.
Asked whether Washington
