A defense shakedown
In terms of security, regional countries do not hold their breath either. If Trump can settle tariff negotiations with Southeast Asian countries, an appropriate approach would be to use the “free and open” Indo-Pacific “strategy to bring allies and American partners to maintain principles, such as freedom and navigation and no recourse to the use of force, as an implicit deterrence on China.
For the moment, Trump 2.0 seems to be going in the right direction. During his first meeting with the leaders of the Quad in January, Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed this strategy. During his first tour of Japan and the Philippines in March, the Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth stressed that America does not first mean America alone.
But such a traditional American approach to regional security cannot be ensured. The fear is that the United States shakes its allies and partners to bring the defense burden more while the United States reduces its posture deployed forward.
No wonder the Southeast Asian countries deepen security cooperation with quadric countries without the United States and have relaunched the debates on South Korea and Japan, which breaks taboo on nuclear weapons.
While the world order led by the United States is heading in a multipolar order, the Southeast Asian countries still retain the agency to trace their own paths.
William Choong is a principal researcher at the Ishak Institute Iseasof Ishak and editor -in -chief PivotThe Institute's Comments and Analysis website on Southeast Asia.
Sharon Seah is the main scholarship holder and coordinator of the Anase Studies Center, Iseas-Yusof Ishak Institute.
