Hillary Clinton headed on trans-Asia trip during Democratic convention

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will be overseas during the Democratic National Convention next week, according to reports Wednesday.

She departs Thursday and is scheduled to attend meetings and talks with officials in the Cook Islands, China and the Russian city of Vladivostok, as well as touring Asia. She will not return to the United States all next week, according to reports.

The State Department announced in April that Clinton would not be attending the Democratic National Convention, which begins next week in Charlotte, N.C. 

"As secretary of State, she is no longer engaged in retail politics, but she remains a keen observer," former State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told Reuters. "I'm pretty sure she'll be closely monitoring what happens there. She has good sources, one in particular, who will be in a good position to tell her what happened."

Her husband, former President Bill Clinton, will be there and is speaking on Wednesday and officially nominating President Obama.

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Wednesday noted it is "tradition" for the current secretary of State to skip political conventions. 

"Indeed, I didn't go to the 2008 convention," she told Fox News's "Fox and Friends."

Hillary Clinton plans to resign her post at the head of the State Department at the end of Obama's first term. She has denied holding further political ambitions.

Updated at 4:13 p.m.

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