AT A.P.E.C SUMMIT, VEEP HARRIS ASSURES ASIAN LEADERS U.S. IS ‘HERE TO STAY’

BANGKOK: US vice-president Kamala Harris assured Asian leaders on Friday that “the United States is here to stay” as she pitched Washington as a reliable economic partner committed to the region and its prosperity.

Harris told leaders at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit that the US is a “proud Pacific power” and has a “vital interest in promoting a region that is open, interconnected, prosperous, secure and resilient.”

“The United States has an enduring economic commitment to the Indo-Pacific, one that is measured not in years, but in decades, and generations,” she said. “And there is no better economic partner for this region than the United States of America.”

Harris postponed the start of her speech after receiving news that North Korea had fired an intercontinental ballistic missile that landed near Japanese waters, convening an emergency meeting of the leaders of Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and Canada in which she slammed the missile test as a “brazen violation of multiple UN Security resolutions.”

“It destabilises security in the region and unnecessarily raises tensions,” she said. “On behalf of the United States I reaffirmed our ironclad commitment to our Indo-Pacific alliances.”