US vice-president-elect Joseph Biden would be travelling to South West Asia, including to Pakistan, on a fact-finding mission this week leading a bipartisan Congressional delegation, but may not visit India.
Speaking to Congressional reporters after taking oath as a Senator for the seventh time, Biden revealed that he would travel to Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan but made no reference to India as an itinerary for his upcoming visit.
"This will be my God-knows-how-many trips, I guess my 10th or 11th trip into Iraq and I don't know how many times in Afghanistan and Pakistan,"
The details of his visit were being kept under wraps by his office for security reasons. Politico said Biden revealed the key stops of his upcoming foreign trip without even being asked. Biden would be leading the Congressional delegation in the capacity as the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, just days before he takes office alongside Barack Obama on January 20.
He would be accompanied by Senator John Kerry, the former Democratic Presidential candidate and the incoming Chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee. For security reasons, details of the trip and the countries to be visited were kept secret until now, with estimates suggesting countries like Pakistan, Afghanistan or India and parts of the Middle East.
