landed Pete Hegseth, US Secretary of Defensewith a delicate mission: to air the Chinese threat enough to persuade its audience to buy weapons in bulk but not too much to preserve the tune with Beijing. He delivered both messages in his speech during the Shangri-la DialogueAsia’s premier annual Defense forum. The continent is wondering these days about the validity of the United States’ commitment when distractions accumulate.
“There is legitimate alarm over the historic growth of Chinese military power and the expansion of its military activities in the region and beyond,” Hegseth warned in Singapore. “If the Pacific is dominated by a hegemonic force, the balance of power will be undone. No country, including China, can impose its hegemony and threaten the security and prosperity of our nation and its allies,” he continued. So much for some very close warnings of alarmism. In the previous edition of the forum, Hegseth repeatedly referred to Beijing as “Communist China” and warned that its invasion of Taiwan “will cause devastating consequences for the Indo-Pacific and the entire world.”
Now one reigns reasonable cordiality between the two superpowers. The relationships, he stated, “They are the best we have had in many years and we meet more frequently with our Chinese counterparts to keep the lines of military communication open.” Last year around this time, both were waging a stark trade war, with tariff walls and the closing of the tap of rare earths on one side, and chips and semiconductors on the other side. The American defeat led to a truce that Xi Jinping and Donald Trump honored weeks ago in Beijing. The latter spoke of “fantastic” trade agreements that are still being negotiated and combative rhetoric could ruin them. The United States does not seek “confrontation but balance” with China and relations based on “equality and reciprocity,” Hegseth has repeated.
He then played his role as a door-to-door weapons salesman to satisfy one of the most influential industries in American politics. In Asia and in NATO, the discourse is the same. “The times when the United States paid for the security of rich nations is over. We need partners, not protectorates. We don’t want more freeloaders,” he explained. Washington intends for purchase orders to arrive from Asia without restraint: increases military spending on its allies up to 3.5% of its GDP for a total investment of 1.5 trillion dollars in its arms industry. Hegseth applauded the contributions of South Korea, the Philippines, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand and showed his optimism with Japan.
The continent, and especially Southeast Asia, is experiencing the geopolitical struggle with concern. Beijing is the main trading partner but its increasingly aggressive actions in territorial disputes sting. especially in the South China Sea and the Formosa Strait. The United States has acted as a military umbrella but there are also concerns that its hostility towards China will trigger a war in the neighborhood. Obama understood that global primacy was being aired in the region, he ordered the “Pivot to the Pacific” after decades of uselessly bleeding in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Asia has since been, at least on paper, a priority of American diplomacy. But the war in Iran raises questions about the strength of the commitment, and several moves justify anxiety. Trump has suspended an arms sale already agreed with Taiwan, the largest operation in history with the island, to ease trade negotiations with Beijing. He had previously moved an anti-missile shield in South Korea, installed to stop missiles from Pyongyang, to the Middle East. Experts have warned that the largest military machine in the world may not be enough for all the puddles Trump steps in. “We can do two things at the same time. We are very happy with our reserves and the way we use them,” Hegseth reassured.
It is not certain that the United States can provide security guarantees simultaneously in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. In the most populated continent in the world, unprecedented cooperation has emerged to cover the risk. South Korea has overcome its historical distrust of Japan due to the excesses of the last century and has strengthened security ties. The Philippines has also closed agreements with Tokyo on Defense and commitments to share information.
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