[ad_1]
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin testifies before the Senate Armed Forces Committee during his hearing as the next Secretary of Defense on January 19, 2021 in Washington, DC.
Swimming pool | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin will visit Southeast Asia later this month, the Pentagon said, a trip that will include stops in the Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam, according to the US Embassy in Hanoi.
“Secretary Austin’s visit will demonstrate the importance the Biden-Harris government attaches to Southeast Asia and ASEAN as an integral part of the architecture of the Indo-Pacific,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said, referring to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations block.
The US embassy in Hanoi announced Tuesday that Austin’s trip would begin on July 23.
“This trip will underscore the US’s continued commitment to the region and our interest in maintaining the rules-based international order in the region and promoting ASEAN centrality,” the message said in a Facebook post.
The United States, under President Joe Biden, is trying to reinforce the need for a US role in a region where China, as the dominant trading partner, has considerable influence but is straining relations due to its military activities in the South China Sea.
Austin has maintained decades of military ties with the Philippines, a defense treaty partner, after largely pro-Chinese President Rodrigo Duterte, whose term ends next year, repeatedly threatened to downgrade the alliance.
[ad_2]
