Editor's note: Hamzah Rifaat Hussain is a former visiting fellow at the Stimson Center in Washington and serves as an assistant researcher at Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI) in Pakistan. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris' scheduled visits to Vietnam and Singapore are coming with expensive foreign policy baggage. America's 20-year long war legacy in Afghanistan which is characterized by numerous strategic blunders is now being closely examined by experts of regional affairs, analysts and major capitals across the world as controversial with many states now having little appetite for military interventions or security arrangements that imperil regional stability. This applies to South East Asia as well where drumbeats of confrontation with China and flawed rationales of warmongering may gain little traction. If the Vice President taps into the China equation again, the credibility of U.S. foreign policy will be at stake.

Kamala Harris' planned calls to counter China in both countries of which Vietnam is witness to historical baggage of American-sponsored polarization during the Vietnam War of 1955, will be another tactical blunder. If the discourse deviates from economic connectivity and focuses on countering what the U.S. erroneously perceives as a collective threat in the region, the reliability of the United States as a guarantor of prosperity, security and regional stability will be questioned.

Note that key allies such as Italy have already been pointing at the haphazard manner in which the entire Afghan policy materialized over 20 years which is a stark contrast to the Biden administration's commitment towards multilateral engagement. This fact is echoed by experts such as Murray Hiebert at Washington's Center for Strategic and International Studies who now places the onus on Harris to reassure both Hanoi and Singapore that commitments to the region will not mirror what transpired in Afghanistan. The credibility of Washington's commitments towards building a more secure region in South East Asia which is less transactional and more strategic given the abject failures in Afghanistan is at stake.

As per a senior White House official, Harris's agenda mirrors that off Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin's last trip in July which was to tap into the subject of international rules in the South China Sea which is in all actuality a reference towards tackling Beijing. The fact is that all previous deliberations with ASEAN member states of which Vietnam and Singapore are critical players have not translated into acceptance of U.S. security frameworks anchored in camp politics with China but have instead resulted in a reaffirmation of the policy of non-alignment. Now, with the United States foreign policy in the doldrums over its repeated failures in Afghanistan which have military, cultural and religious connotations, the appetite for confrontation is minimal.

Questions regarding commitments to South East Asia which are strategic, variegated and visionary are another important mooting point to note as Washington D.C. pursues its Indo-Pacific pivot. The belief that once strategic objectives such as tackling China through bizarre rationales are satisfied, a policy of abandonment may be pursued akin to Afghanistan raises further questions about whether the United States will prove to be as reliable as purported. Mustering up the positive sentiment with repeated foreign policy blunders is a difficult task yet the Biden administration is adamant in countering this notion by de-hyphenating the situation in Afghanistan from what it perceives as pursuing policies of promoting 'free lanes' in the Asia Pacific.

The truth is that there is a military dimension to this pivot laced with an anti-China animus which most of the ASEAN states including Vietnam and Singapore understand and will not bandwagon with. Washington D.C. is also focusing on the Asia Pacific after exhausting millions of dollars in resources and imperiling the lives of millions of Afghans, where presenting false threat perceptions will continue to hurt its international image as a guarantor of peace. The entire foreign policy spectrum is once again in the spotlight.

The chaos in Kabul serves as a reminder that whenever U.S. policy has attempted to coax or cajole states with the objective of tackling rivals in the region, that policy has not been conducive to peace. Similar rhetoric may once again fall on deaf ears in Hanoi, Singapore or anywhere else in South East Asia which for the Biden administration will be another strategic loss.

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