Amid US political chaos, Blinken heads to Asia to bolster Indo-Pacific ties

Ignoring the political chaos surrounding President Joe Biden's decision to end his reelection campaign, Secretary of State Antony Blinken will head to Asia this week on a long-planned eight-day trip aimed at shoring up ties with Indo-Pacific allies and partners but with the priority of assuring them that the United States remains committed to the region.

The State Department announced on Monday that Blinken, a longtime close aide to Biden dating from the president's days in the Senate, will travel to Vietnam, Laos, Japan, the Philippines, Singapore and Mongolia for a series of international and bilateral meetings.

Those will include discussions in Laos with his Chinese counterpart and strategic and security talks in Tokyo and Manila also involving Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin.

The trip had been scheduled well before Biden's announcement on Sunday that he was withdrawing from the presidential race. State Department officials said there was no discussion of cancelling or postponing