SINGAPORE: US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth assured Pacific allies on Saturday that Washington remained committed to the region, but toned down previous comments calling China a threat.
Speaking to a group of world leaders, diplomats and top security officials at the Shangri-La defence conference in Singapore, Hegseth said that the region “has profound implications for US security and prosperity” and that Washington's priority was to “achieve a lasting and favourable balance of power in the Pacific.”
It was his second time addressing the forum, hosted by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). Last year, he raised the ire of Beijing by warning of rapidly developing threats from China, particularly its aggressive stance toward Taiwan. He said China is no longer just building up its military forces to take Taiwan, it's “actively training for it, every day.”
This year, however, the meeting comes only about two weeks after US President Donald Trump visited Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing, following which Trump called Xi a “great leader” and said that they were going to have a “fantastic future together.”
Hegseth says China won't be allowed to dominate the region
Hegseth, who was with Trump in Beijing, said the two leaders had agreed that China and the US should “build a constructive relationship of strategic stability, based on fairness and reciprocity, reaffirming that while our nations will vigorously protect our respective interests, we can secure practical, mutually beneficial agreements where our interests align.”
However, he said it was still an American priority to ensure that China is not allowed to dominate the Indo-Pacific.
“There is rightful alarm regarding China's historic military buildup and the expansion of its military activities in the region and beyond,” he said.
“We share a clear-eyed assessment of that security environment and a mutual understanding that a Pacific dominated by any hegemon would unravel the regional balance of power and undermine the equilibrium we all seek to preserve.”
Later in the day, Chinese Maj Gen Meng Xiangqing praised Hegseth's remarks about the meeting between Xi and Trump, saying the consensus the leaders reached “should provide strategic guidance for China-US relations over the next three years and beyond.”
“During his meeting with President Trump, President Xi Jinping made it clear that such constructive strategic stability should be a positive form of stability centred on cooperation, a healthy form of stability in which competition remains within reasonable bounds, a normal state of stability in which differences are managed and kept under control, and a lasting form of stability that offers the prospect of peace,” he said.
US Sen Tammy Duckworth, part of a congressional delegation to the conference, accused the Trump administration of “cozying up” to China.
“I worry that this administration is being distracted into wars that they've started in other parts of the world at the expense of our commitment here in the Indo-Pacific,” the Illinois Democrat told reporters on the sidelines.
“I am concerned that it seems like our president is entering into, you know, policies where he's doing what Beijing wants him to do,” she added.
After the meetings between Xi and Trump, the American president raised questions about Washington's willingness to defend Taiwan, calling a new USD 14 billion arms package that he has yet to greenlight “a very good negotiating chip for us” with China.
China claims the democratic self-governing island as its own, and Xi has not ruled out using force to take it. The US is required by law to help provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself, though follows a policy of “strategic ambiguity” on whether it would intervene militarily if China were to attack the island.
Hegseth told the forum that there was “no change in our status” toward Taiwan, but would not comment on the arms deal.
“Any decision about future Taiwan arms sales, as the president said, will rest with him,” he said.
US praises countries that spent more on defence
He underscored the Trump administration's insistence that allies increase defence spending, saying “we need partners, not protectorates.”
He lauded several countries in Asia for their efforts, while reiterating criticism of European allies, without naming names, who he suggested got “distracted by empty globalist rhetoric about the rules-based international order.”
“Our partners in Asia have long understood that the bedrock of a durable partnership is not based on idealistic values but on the concrete alignment of national interests,” he said.
“When our interests diverge, we adjust pragmatically, without the drama or the moralising,” he added. “I think Western Europe might take note — this is a mindset we fully embrace.”
Hegseth did not mention either the war in Ukraine or Iran war in his speech. When asked about Iran, he only said that Trump had assured him that when negotiations with Tehran had concluded, “any deal will be a good deal.”
Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles, whose country was among those Hegseth praised for increased military spending, said that while the international rules-based order is not perfect, the “task before us, all of us, including the great powers, is the renovation of that order, not its dismemberment.”
“When the rules apply, smaller states have agency,” Marles said in a speech that followed Hegseth's. “When the rules yield to power, sovereignty becomes, as others have put it, the purview of the powerful, and no state in this room today, whatever its size, is well served by that outcome.”
UK, US and Australia announce new undersea drone initiative
At an event held outside the conference, Hegseth, Marles and British Defence Secretary John Healey announced a new initiative in their AUKUS partnership, whose primary focus has been the development and construction of nuclear-powered submarines.
Under the so-called second pillar of AUKUS, the three said they would together invest in the development of improved capabilities for underwater drones.
“Together we produce a range of cutting-edge sensors or weapons systems for undersea drones,” Healey said, adding it will help detect threats including to underwater cables and pipelines.