Hegseth heads to Manila to shore up US ties with Asia-Pacific partners
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US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth will attend a Southeast Asian defence meeting this week alongside his counterparts from India, South Korea and Japan as Washington looks to solidify ties with the region after a year overshadowed by the fallout from the US-Israel war on Iran.
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The meeting will bring together defence officials from the 11-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) plus eight of the bloc’s dialogue partners.
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Australia, New Zealand, Russia and China are also expected to send representatives to the talks, which run from Wednesday to Thursday in the Philippines.
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Known as the ASEAN Defense Ministers’ Meeting-Plus (ADMM-Plus), the meeting will be held alongside a parallel ASEAN members-only event for Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste, and Vietnam.
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India is among the dialogue partners that will host bilateral meetings on the sidelines of ADMM-Plus to “review the ongoing defence ties and explore ways to further strengthen strategic partnerships”, according to state media.
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William Yang, senior analyst for Northeast Asia at the International Crisis Group, told Al Jazeera that the focus will be on regional security concerns like Myanmar’s ongoing civil war and maritime disputes between ASEAN states and neighbouring China.
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“The South China Sea dispute is going to be front and centre because the Philippines is the chair of this year’s summit,” he told Al Jazeera, adding that he expects Manila to push for ASEAN to finalise a code of conduct with China to outline how to approach maritime disputes and handle conflicts in the globally important waterway.
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The Philippines, China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, and Taiwan all have overlapping territorial claims to the South China Sea, although Beijing claims most of it as domestic waters.
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These disputes often leave Beijing at odds with its neighbours, and particularly Manila, as both sides claim the uninhabited Scarborough Shoal and parts of the Spratly Islands.
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Tensions escalated sharply this month with at least “eight close encounters” in the South China Sea and nearby Luzon Strait, according to the US Naval Institute.
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The spat turned into a war of words when Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Jing Quan said Beijing could “easily win” a war with the Philippines, prompting a Philippine senator to call for his expulsion.
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Beijing has yet to confirm whether Chinese Defence Minister Dong Jun will attend ADMM-Plus in person, but he could still make a last-minute appearance. The Chinese defence chief attended ADMM-Plus 2024 and 2025, according to Bonnie Glaser, managing director of the German Marshall Fund’s Indo-Pacific Program, and Hegseth’s presence could factor into Beijing’s calculations.
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China and the US have spent the past year thawing their relationship. A face-to-face meeting between Hegseth and Dong could also lay the groundwork for two meetings between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping scheduled for later this year, following two previous meetings between Trump and Xi this year.
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“It is certainly possible that he will attend again this year,” Glaser told Al Jazeera by email. “I would not be surprised if Dong meets with Secretary Hegseth, especially since China has repeatedly said that it attaches importance to strengthening crisis communications and preventing crises between the US and Chinese militaries.” Analysts, however, say that the bulk of Hegseth’s work at ASEAN will be reassuring the bloc and its dialogue partners that the US remains committed to the region amid its months-long conflict with Iran.
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The US has raised eyebrows in Asia over the past year by moving some of its military assets from South Korea and Japan to the Middle East, while Trump has also sent mixed signals on his views on Taiwan, another potential flashpoint for the region.
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Trump has reportedly delayed a major arms package to Taiwan, an unofficial US ally, ahead of an upcoming meeting with Xi at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in November, before the Group of 20 (G20) Leaders’ Summit in December.
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“What Hegseth says and does will be interesting,” said Ja Ian Chong, a political scientist at the National University of Singapore, because of recent comments by US defence official Elbridge Colby suggesting that Washington would focus less on empty gestures and more on substance in the Asia-Pacific region.
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“How Hegseth keeps to these lines while trying to keep a US advantage will be interesting, since these are not easy calibrations to make,” Chong said.
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