Afghanistan fallout engulfs Harris’ first day of Southeast Asia trip

On Aug 23, 2021

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.

“There’s no question there will be, and should be, a robust analysis of what has happened,” Harris said, as she sidestepped answering whether she was personally satisfied with the operational steps being taken during the US withdrawal. Officials separated reporters traveling with the vice president from the politicians because of Singapore’s Covid-19 restrictions.

Harris said in April she was among the last advisers Biden consulted before making his decision to end the Afghanistan war, and she has joined the multitude of briefings he’s received on the matter over the past week. Her advisers had faced questions ahead of her trip about whether the tumultuous end to the 20-year war would undermine her message to leaders in Asia about America’s commitments abroad.

There had already been some questions about Biden’s attention to southeast Asia; he hasn’t spoken directly to a leader from the region since taking office. Part of the reason he’s explained for ending the Afghanistan war is a desire to shift focus to modern-day issues, like countering China’s rise.

On Monday, even as Harris sought to project the administration’s focus on bolstering its influence in Asia, she still faced questions about the Afghanistan crisis.

“Right now, we are singularly focused on evacuating American citizens, Afghans who worked with us, and Afghans who are vulnerable, including women and children,” Harris added. She also defended President Joe Biden, saying he’d shown “great emotion” over the images coming out of Afghanistan.

Responding to the Afghanistan crisis while on foreign soil is part of the steep challenge Harris faces this week as she travels to Singapore and Vietnam, as the once-low-risk trip to friendly nations comes at the same time as a chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Political experts, and even her own allies, say Harris faces enhanced pressure to fulfill dual responsibilities largely unfamiliar to her in the seven months she’s been in office: Deliver a foreign policy win for an administration in crisis and embody Biden’s call to pivot US focus abroad to counter a rising China.

“It’s going to be a real sticking point for her to exude that America is here and we’re committed to…