Vice President Kamala Harris, undertaking a suddenly high-stakes visit to Southeast Asia this week amid the first major foreign policy crisis of the Biden administration, was on the receiving end of questions Monday about the US’ withdrawal from Afghanistan for the first time since the chaotic fall of Kabul.
Harris’ stops in Singapore and Vietnam have assumed outsized importance for their potential to reassure foreign leaders of the United States’ continued commitment to its allies. Particularly in Vietnam where Harris heads Tuesday — as images of the 1975 fall of Saigon have stirred comparisons to evacuations in Kabul — the vice president will work to maintain her focus on Asia, a region President Joe Biden wants to prioritize as he ends 9/11-era conflicts.
Yet on Monday, reporters beamed in on a monitor from another room to pepper Harris on the tumultuous Afghanistan exit as she stood alongside Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loon in a joint press conference after their first bilateral meeting, providing a first look at how the vice president is approaching the unfolding crisis.