The takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban and U.S. struggle to evacuate people stuck there threatened to overshadow the veep\u2019s visit.<\/b>
\nAs the Biden administration remained consumed by the Afghanistan crisis, Vice President Harris on Sunday began a visit to Southeast Asia. Harris arrived on Air Force Two at Paya Lebar Air Base in Singapore, and was scheduled to have a phone call with the island city-state\u2019s President Halimah Yacob and meet with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Monday. Officials also planned to name an orchid after her in a ceremony, according to the local Straits Times. Harris was also scheduled to give a speech on the U.S. vision for the region \u2014 a key priority for the White House \u2014 before heading to Vietnam on Tuesday. Harris said Friday the nations on her itinerary \u201care the seat of the Indo-Pacific region. We have interests there that relate to both security interests, economic interests and, more recently, global health interests.\u201d On the agenda are the pandemic response and the digital economy, according to Bloomberg. But the takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban and the U.S. struggle to evacuate people stuck there threatened to overshadow the veep\u2019s visit. White House officials have bristled at comparisons between the evacuation of the U.S. Embassy in Kabul and the fall of Saigon in 1975, though the parallel was expected to come up during Harris\u2019s trip to Vietnam. With News Wire Services<\/p>\n