WASHINGTON – U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman will visit Japan, South Korea and Mongolia from July 18 to July 25, the State Department said on Thursday.
The announcement of Sherman’s travel schedule made no mention of a stop in China, which had been anticipated in foreign policy circles and reported in some media.
The State Department said Sherman would discuss a broad range of issues with officials in Japan, including combating the climate crisis and enhancing global health security.
It said Sherman and counterparts in Japan and South Korea would hold a joint meeting to discuss trilateral cooperation on North Korea and other issues, including climate change and global health.
She would hold further talks in Seoul before heading to Ulaanbaatar to reinforce the U.S. Mongolia Strategic Partnership, the statement said.
“Throughout the trip, the Deputy Secretary will reaffirm the U.S. commitment to working with allies and partners to promote peace, security, and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific and to upholding the international rules-based order,” language the State Department uses to refer to its efforts to push back against China’s increasingly assertive behavior in the region.
It will be her second trip to Asia in less than two months after visits to Indonesia, Cambodia, and Thailand in late May and early June.
The Biden administration has ramped up sanctions on China for human rights abuses in Xinjiang and Hong Kong, and, in a shift from his predecessor Donald Trump, has sought to rally allies and partners to help counter what it says is China’s increasingly coercive economic and foreign policies.