23/08/2021
Kamala Harris Asia tour: Singapore offers tanker aircraft to US for Afghan evacuation:-----
Singapore on Monday provided America one in all its tanker plane to airlift stranded civilians from war-torn Afghanistan, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong mentioned as he held talks with US Vice President Kamala Harris throughout which the 2 nations signed quite a lot of key agreements to boost cooperation, together with in defence and cybersecurity.
Vice President Harris’ go to to Singapore is a part of a diplomatic allure offensive by the Biden administration in Southeast Asia, a area that’s essential to the long run prosperity and safety of america, amidst China’s aggressive actions within the area.
Harris thanked Lee for the “very beneficiant provide” to help the US in its evacuations from Afghanistan.
“We stay up for following up on that dialogue,” she mentioned.
The A330 Multi Function Tanker Transport (MRTT) plane of the Singapore Air Power, which attained full operational functionality in April, is able to conducting air-to-air refuelling and airlift roles concurrently.
It enhances the Singapore Armed Forces’ capability to contribute to worldwide humanitarian help and catastrophe reduction missions, and peace assist operations.
Lee, at a press convention held together with Harris, mentioned that the protection and safety of the civilians is on the minds of everybody everywhere in the world, and that he hopes that each one sides there can work to make sure this.
The MRTT plane of the Republic of Singapore Air Power (RSAF) can carry as much as 266 passengers or 37,000 kgs of cargo, and can be utilized to evacuate sick or injured personnel.
“I discussed to Vice President (Harris) that we knew that the US was conducting an evacuation operation of refugees from Afghanistan, and Singapore wish to provide to the US the usage of (RSAF’s MRTT) plane as a way to assist with the airlift,” mentioned Lee.
The US is evacuating People from Kabul which fell to the Taliban on August
