Vice President Kamala Harris asserted on Monday that the U.S. must maintain its focus on evacuating Americans and vulnerable Afghans and shouldn’t get distracted by questions over what went wrong in the chaotic US exit from Afghanistan.
Speaking at a news conference in Singapore, Harris repeatedly declined to engage when asked what she felt should have been done differently in the withdrawal.
“There’s no question there will be and should be a robust analysis of what has happened, but right now there’s no question that our focus has to be on evacuating American citizens, Afghans who worked with us and vulnerable Afghans, including women and children,” she said.
Harris took questions alongside Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong after the two met for about two hours to discuss issues ranging from the Covis-19 response to cybersecurity and supply chain cooperation. The news conference was rife with questions related to Afghanistan.
Harris’ visit to Singapore and Vietnam this week is seen as the first real test of the Biden administration’s ability to reassure key allies of its resolve.
Prime Minister Lee offered his country’s support for the U.S. decision to withdraw, however, and said Singapore was “grateful” for the U.S. efforts to combat terrorism in Afghanistan. He also offered the U.S. the use of the Singapore Air Force’s transport aircraft to help with the evacuation, and said the country is now watching what the U.S. does next.
“What matters is how the U.S. repositions itself in the Asia Pacific, engages the broader region and continues to fight against terrorism, because that will determine the perceptions of the countries of the U.S.′ global priorities and of its strategic intentions,” he said.
Harris’ Southeast Asian trip, which brings her to Singapore and then later to Vietnam this week, is aimed at broadening cooperation with both nations to offer a counterweight to China’s growing influence in the region.
The trip marks Harris’ second foreign trip in office — she visited Guatemala and Mexico in June – and will be the first time a U.S. vice president has visited Vietnam.
Indeed, Singapore Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan said in a recent interview that Singapore will “be useful but we will not be made use of” in its relations with both countries, and the nation’s prime minister previously warned the U.S. against pursuing an aggressive approach to China.
Beijing, however, has seized on Harris’ trip, with China’s official Xinhua News Agency issuing an editorial Saturday on the visit portraying it as part of a drive to contain China.
Visits to Southeast Asia by senior Biden officials are aiming to “woo these countries to form a ring of containment against China. But Southeast Asian countries are reluctant to choose sides between China and the United States, and America’s ‘wishful plan’ will end in failure,” Xinhua said.
The US approach is based on “outdated Cold War thinking and is intended to provoke troubles in their relations with China, create division and confrontation, and try to create a ring of containment,” the editorial said.