WASHINGTON: US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard on Tuesday embarked upon a multi-nation trip to the Indo-Pacific, including India.
Calling herself a ‘child of the Pacific’, Gabbard said she will be going to Japan, Thailand, and India, with a brief stop in France.
In a post on X, Gabbard said, “I am wheels up on a multi-nation trip to the Indo-Pacific, a region I know very well having grown up as a child of the Pacific. I’ll be going to Japan, Thailand, and India, with a brief stop in France enroute back to DC. Building strong relationships, understanding, and open lines of communication are vital to achieving President Trump’s objectives of peace, freedom and prosperity. First stop: Honolulu where I’ll visit IC partners and INDOPACOM leaders, and our troops engaging in training.”
Gabbard’s trip will include an appearance at a security conference in India next week, media reported.
It is Gabbard’s second international trip as a top Trump administration official. Immediately after she was confirmed a month ago, she traveled to Germany to attend the Munich Security Conference.
On Wednesday, Gabbard arrived in Hawaii, which hosts a large National Security Agency office as well as the military’s Indo-Pacific Command headquarters, officials said.
Gabbard, who represented the state for eight years in Congress, will meet military and intelligence officers while in Hawaii, according to her social media post, in which she also said she would watch US troops train.
The Asia leg of Gabbard’s trip will culminate in an address on March 18 at the Rasina conference, a multinational gathering of security officials in Delhi, to which she was invited by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. There, Gabbard will hold bilateral meetings with Indian officials and officials from other countries, a senior Trump administration official said.
The Trump administration is pushing for a ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia and has been pressuring the Kyiv government to make concessions to end the war.
Trump administration officials’ comments at the Munich conference in February left many European diplomats reeling, particularly Vice President JD Vance’s rebuke of Europe for what he said was abridging conservatives’ free speech, media reported.
But Gabbard’s remarks, which focused on counterterrorism cooperation between Europe and America, were well received by European diplomats’ eager for any sign that US intelligence agencies intend to preserve their partnerships with longstanding allies.
The senior administration official said Gabbard intended to strike similar themes in India and would address counterterrorism, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and intelligence sharing.