TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Asia in focus as US, France make competing offers
As great powers loom large over the Indo-Pacific, the United States and France competed for clout at the region's security forum in Singapore over the weekend.
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
United States Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks at the IISS Shangri-La Dialogue security summit in Singapore, May 31, 2025. (Reuters/Edgar Su)
As great powers loom large over the Indo-Pacific, the United States and France competed for clout at the region's security forum in Singapore over the weekend.
In a ballroom full of senior officials from governments, militaries and diplomats around the world at the three-day Shangri-La Dialogue that was hosted by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and French President Emmanuel Macron made their bold bids to court Indo-Pacific nations.
Speaking in his first-ever appearance at the annual forum, Hegseth gave an assurance that the US would work more closely with Indo-Pacific allies, calling the region its “priority theater,” and promising to step up joint defense cooperation with regional allies, including Japan and the Philippines.
“No one should doubt America’s commitment to our Indo-Pacific allies and partners,” he said. "We will continue to wrap our arms around our friends and find new ways to work together, not only our treaty allies here, but also our key defense partners in ASEAN and across the Indo-Pacific.”
He said the Donald Trump administration was pursuing a "common sense" approach to reestablishing deterrence in the face of a “real” threat from China that includes increasing the US military presence in the western Pacific, "helping allies and partners strengthen their defense capabilities” and “rebuilding our defense industrial bases”.
In his address, Hegseth made a direct appeal to Asian allies, challenging them to boost their defense spending and pointing to Europe as an example. “How can it make sense for countries in Europe to do that while key allies and partners in Asia spend far less in the face of a far more formidable threat from communist China, not to mention North Korea?” he said.
Hegseth’s speech contrasted starkly with the tone struck by Macron in his keynote address on Friday evening, during which the French president warned that intensifying US-China rivalry risked dividing the world into opposing camps and undermining global stability, urging Asian nations to resist being forced to choose sides.
