US SECRETARY of State Antony Blinken is now in Vietnam at the beginning of a six-nation tour that includes Laos, Japan, the Philippines, Singapore and Mongolia. The tour is evidently intended to assure the region that despite US President Joe Biden dropping out of the presidential race in favor of Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic presidential candidate, his 'ironclad commitments' to the region remain unchanged.

They will definitely stand if Harris is elected and change only if the Republican candidate Donald Trump wins and decides to end, as he has indicated he would, every 'international crisis' in the world.