US secretary of state Mike Pompeo discusses 'the state of religious freedom around the world' in an address to the second Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom at the state department in Washington, the US, July 18 2019. Picture: REUTERS/MARY F CALVERT
Pompeo said that details of the group — dubbed the International Religious Freedom Alliance — were still being worked out but that it would “bring like-minded countries together” to make the issue a priority. The three-day gathering at the state department, which is being held for the second straight year, is bringing together dozens of countries and hundreds of activists to promote religious freedom.
Pompeo in his remarks harshly criticised US adversaries Iran and China for their human rights records, calling Beijing’s incarceration of more than 1-million Uighurs and other mostly Muslim Turkic-speaking people “truly the stain of the century”.