Harris pledges U.S. help for Afghan women, kids
HANOI, Vietnam — Vice President Kamala Harris said Thursday that the United States would work with its allies to protect women and children in Afghanistan, as the Taliban takeover forced her to confront troubling historical parallels and diverted attention from her original mission on a five-day trip to Southeast Asia.
“There’s no question that any of us who are paying attention are concerned about that issue in Afghanistan,” said Harris, referring to the protection of women and children.
The vice president made her comments in the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi, on the final day of her trip to Southeast Asia, a key part of the Biden administration’s strategy to forge partnerships in the region and refocus U.S. foreign policy on competing with China’s rising influence.
With the Biden administration racing to meet Tuesday’s self-imposed deadline to leave Afghanistan, the situation in Kabul has cast a shadow over a trip meant to focus on public health, supply chain issues and economic partnerships.
In Singapore, whether it was at her meeting with the city-state’s leaders or during her tour of orchids after a high-stakes foreign policy speech, Harris consistently faced questions about the withdrawal, the future of human rights in Afghanistan and the fate of those who had risked their lives to help U.S. troops in the 20-year war.
In Hanoi, the pressure did not relent — particularly after the world witnessed images of desperate Afghans rushing behind U.S. military planes, drawing comparisons to the United States’ evacuation from Vietnam in 1975.
Biden administration officials have said they’ve evacuated tens of thousands of people since Aug. 14, the day before Kabul fell to the Taliban. Most Americans have been flown out, although tens of thousands of Afghan allies almost certainly will be left behind.
On Thursday, Harris didn’t directly answer a question about whether Americans were safer now than they had been before the withdrawal from Afghanistan. Instead, she touted the administration’s evacuation effort, which has ramped up swiftly in recent days, saying the administration was “singularly focused” on evacuating remaining American citizens and Afghan allies.