Vice President-elect Joseph Biden will visit Southwest Asia this week with other U.S. senators ahead of his inauguration with President-elect Barack Obama on January 20, officials said Monday. The outgoing chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations committee will be joined on the trip by Senator John Kerry (Democrat from Massachusetts), his successor as head of the powerful panel, Biden's Senate office said. Citing security reasons, Biden's office said the delegation's itinerary would be released after the trip was underway. But the delegation will depart “later this week,” it said in a statement. “The purpose of this trip is fact-finding: in the coming months, both the executive and legislative branches will carefully review U.S. policy toward this region, and the trip will allow its participants to bring current and first-hand information to these reviews,” said the statement from Biden's office. “The fact-finding delegation will make it clear to foreign leaders that they're not there to speak on behalf of the U.S. government, or convey policy positions for the incoming administration,” the statement said. Joining Biden and Kerry will be Senators Jack Reed (Democrat from Rhode Island), Susan Collins (Republican from Maine), and Lindsey Graham (Republican from South Carolina). Collins and Graham are members of the Armed Services Committee.
