U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will speak "loud and clear" during an upcoming 11-day trip that Washington's commitment to Asia remains unchanged, regardless of President Joe Biden's decision to end his reelection bid, the country's top diplomat for the region said Monday.
"I think the message that the secretary is going to be conveying to the region is that America is all in on the Indo-Pacific," said Daniel Kritenbrink, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs.
Starting from Wednesday, Blinken will travel to Vietnam, Laos, Japan, the Philippines, Singapore and Mongolia. The long trip, arranged with his participation in annual ASEAN-related meetings, comes just days after Biden announced his exit from the race for the November presidential election.
Biden came under intense pressure from fellow Democrats to step aside after a shaky debate performance against his Republican rival Donald Trump.
On Sunday, shortly after his withdrawal announcement, Biden endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to be the Democratic presidential nominee. But it remains uncertain if she can run an effective campaign to defeat Trump, who is known to approach foreign affairs in transactional terms.
Kritenbrink said in a briefing that the forthcoming trip will provide "an opportunity to highlight the unprecedented work we've done to strengthen relationships with our treaty allies in the Indo-Pacific" such as Japan and the Philippines, and deepen engagement with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
"We're incredibly proud of what we've achieved in this administration in terms of our demonstrated commitment to the region," he said. "I've never seen a stronger demand signal for American engagement across the region. We're confident we've met that moment and we'll continue to do so going forward."
In Japan, aside from discussing a range of security issues bilaterally, he said there will be a four-way meeting involving the foreign ministers of Australia and India, which form a grouping known as the Quad with the two allies.
In the Philippines, Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will meet with their counterparts and hold so-called two-plus-two talks, as they will in Japan.
On the sidelines of the ASEAN Regional Forum in the Laotian capital Vientiane, Kritenbrink said Blinken could hold a meeting with China's top diplomat Wang Yi.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is among the participants scheduled to attend the regional forum.
The U.S. diplomat said he expects there will be a North Korean official at the forum but does not anticipate a meeting between Blinken and "whoever that representative will be."
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