Afghanistan withdrawal overshadows Kamala Harris' first Asia trip as vice president

Hong Kong — Kamala Harris' first trip to Asia as vice president was meant to signal the United States' staunch commitment to partners in the Indo-Pacific region in the face of a rising China. Instead, Harris' three-day stop in Singapore quickly turned into a platform for journalists to question her on the U.S.' reliability as a security partner as Washington's chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan continued.

In prepared remarks to rolling cameras, both Harris and Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong focused on cooperation on COVID prevention and regional stability, but in an open question and answer session that followed, reporters focused on Afghanistan, not the intended themes of Harris' trip.  The Singaporean leader revealed that his government had offered Washington a tanker transport plane in support of efforts to evacuate thousands of Americans and their allies from Afghanistan.