Vice President Joseph
Biden is on his way to China, Mongolia, and Japan later this month, his
office announced today.
In Beijing, Biden will meet with Vice President Xi Jinping, who is expected to replace Hu Jintao as president next year.
"He will visit China at the invitation of Vice President Xi
Jinping - the first of the planned reciprocal visits between the Vice
Presidents announced during President Hu Jintao's state visit to Washington
earlier this year," the White House said in a release.
Biden will do the diplomatic trifecta, meeting with Hu in
Beijing, as well as Chinese premier Wen
Jiabao. After Beijing, Biden will go to the southwestern Chinese city of
Chengdu, then to the Mongolian capitol of Ulaanbaatar, and then Tokyo. The
Office of the Vice President did not release the dates or specifics of meetings
for the Mongolia or Japan legs of Biden's trip.
The China visit comes only three months before President Barack Obama travels to Asia in
November. Obama will lead a huge U.S. delegation as the host of the 2011 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC)
forum, which is being held in the city of his birth, Honolulu. He will then go
to Bali to lead America's first-ever delegation as an official member of the
East Asia Summit (EAS). EAS is a regional security focused organization that
the administration joined as part of an increased commitment to strengthen U.S.
relations with Asia.
Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton just got back from Bali, where she was attending the ASEAN Regional
Forum (ARF), the largest grouping of Southeast Asian nations and their friends.
Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates
was in Singapore in June for the IISS Shangri-La Security Dialogue, which
was also attended by your humble Cable
guy.
In
between Honolulu and Bali, Obama has a few days of down time, not enough to go
back to Washington but certainly enough to visit one more country in the
region. But where will he go? The Australian ambassador told a group of
journalists at his annual summer BBQ this week that Australia is lobbying hard
for an Obama visit. The White House has yet to make any commitments to
Australia, or any other country.
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