A DEFENCE SHAKEDOWN
Local nations are also holding their breath on a stability before. A good strategy would be to use the” Free and Open Indo-Pacific” strategy to persuade US allies and partners to support concepts like freedom of movement and no recourse to push as an implicit barrier against China if Mr. Trump may live tax negotiations with Southeast Asian nations.
Trump 2.0 appears to be heading in the right direction for the time being. Secretary of State Marco Rubio supported this approach during his first meeting with Rear leaders in January. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth emphasized that America First does not equate to America Only during his first visit to Japan and the Philippines in March.
However, it is impossible to guarantee a standard US strategy for regional security. The US is feared for reducing its forward-deployed position by lowering its allies and partners and causing more of the defense burden.  ,
No question there is talk about Southeast Asian nations boosting security cooperation with Quad places without the US, and there has also been a resurrected debate about South Korea and Japan breaking the ban on nuclear weapons.
Southeast Asian nations still have the authority to graph their own lines as the US-led earth buy deteriorates in a unipolar world order.
William Choong is the managing director of Fulcrum, the institution’s criticism and study web for Southeast Asia, and a Top Fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute.
The ASEAN Studies Center, ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, and Sharon Seah are Older Fellows and Coordinaters.