Kamala Harris assured US’s only priority in Afghanistan was evacuation

The Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris said Monday that her country’s only priority in Afghanistan right now is the evacuation of American and Afghan citizens. linked to Washington or in a particularly vulnerable situation.

“We cannot in any way be distracted from our priority mission: to evacuate people who deserve to be evacuated.”Harris pointed out during a press conference in Singapore with the Prime Minister of the city-state, Lee Hsien Loong, at the start of his tour of Southeast Asia, which will take him to Vietnam tomorrow.

The vice president avoided evaluating possible errors in the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan and recalled the work of the military to repatriate personnel of the American embassies without American victims and the control of the airport of Kabul to ensure the evacuation of thousands of people after the seizure of power by the Taliban.

“It will be time to analyze what happened. We are focused on the evacuation of American citizens, Afghans who have worked with us, and people in vulnerable situations, including women and children. This is our only priority “, he stressed.

Thousands of people crowd at the entrance to Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport in an attempt to board one of the planes, amid fear after the Taliban took over the capital there one week.

According to White House estimates, there are still between 10,000 and 15,000 Americans in Afghanistan who must be evacuated, in addition to between 50,000 and 65,000 Afghans and their families that the United States also wants to expel from the country.

The United States evacuated 7,800 people from Afghanistan on Saturday, bringing the total last week to around 25,000. The figure represents a significant acceleration from the pace recorded in recent days, when 4,000 evacuees per day had failed. not been exceeded.

COMMITMENT TO THE REGION

Durante su intervención, Harris reafirmó el Compromise de Estados Unidos en el Sudeste Asiático y la región indopacífica para Garantizar el cumplimiento de las leyes internacionales, los derechos humanos y la libertad de navegación en el Mar de China Meridional, donde Pekín mantiene tension zoned.

Vice President to stage security support in region during visit to Changi military base in Singapore today and he will close his visit to the nation-state tomorrow with a meeting with businessmen, where he will outline the need to strengthen supply chains around the world.

Then he will leave for Vietnam, where he will meet the leaders of the country on Wednesday, with which the United States has strengthened its relations in recent years and which has become an alternative to China as a manufacturing center for the country’s big companies. .

The trip of Harris, who will become the first US vice president to pay an official visit to Vietnam, is seen by analysts as a further step in Biden’s strategy to gain influence in a region where China has strengthened its presence for Donald Trump’s tenure.

Harris arrived in Singapore just one month after Secretary of State for Defense Lloyd Austin’s tour of Singapore, Vietnam and the Philippines and the multiple virtual meetings Secretary of State Anthony Blinken held with foreign ministers of the region.

(With information from EFE)

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