(Kuala Lumpur) US Foreign Minister Antony Blinken on Wednesday decided to cut short his tour of Southeast Asia due to a case of COVID-19 in the delegation traveling with him, the State Department said .
The Bangkok stage, where he was to meet with Thai officials on Thursday, is canceled “to reduce the risks” and “the secretary of state will return to Washington,” his spokesperson told reporters accompanying him.
“The Secretary of State expressed his deep regret” to Thai officials “not being able to go to Bangkok this week”.
“To reduce the risks of contamination by COVID-19 and to give priority to the health and safety of his delegation and of those with whom he could have been in contact”, Antony Blinken has decided to cut short his trip, indicates the spokesperson’s press release.
The plane of the American delegation will only make a short technical stopover in Thailand, with no official talks on the agenda. He will then return to the United States.
Bangkok was to be the third and last stop on this Asian journey, after Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur. The secretary of state had started his round-the-world tour by attending a G7 ministerial meeting in Liverpool, UK over the weekend, and was initially scheduled to stop in Hawaii on the way home.
A journalist who accompanied Antony Blinken on this long journey, which was initially supposed to last eight days, was tested positive on his arrival in Malaysia, on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday. The State Department said no other members of the press or advisers close to the minister tested positive, without giving details.
The journalist who tested positive will have to remain in Kuala Lumpur in solitary confinement in accordance with local regulations before he can leave.
In Jakarta, the secretary of state spoke on Tuesday in a speech about the United States’ strategy for the Indo-Pacific region, which consists of strengthening alliances and fostering prosperity in Asian countries to counter China’s “aggressive” acts.