13 March 2017, 20:14 GMT
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — There is no room for a traveling press pool on the small aircraft US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is taking on his Asia trip, Department of State Acting Spokesperson Mark Toner said in a telephonic press briefing on Tuesday.
"As you know it was a small airplane. We could not accommodate press," Toner told reporters.
Toner said he was unsure if there would be a single seat allocated for a reporter on the trip, which was set to begin on Tuesday afternoon.
The decision to travel on a smaller aircraft was Tillerson’s, Toner said, and was in part an effort to save money.
Tillerson will meet with leaders in Tokyo, Seoul and Beijing during the five-day trip, his first to the region as top US diplomat.
The secretary has not been as press-friendly as his predecessor, John Kerry. The State Department held no press briefings from January 20-March 7.
