Trump walks in with a defense chief who doesn't know which countries belong to ASEAN, and a state secretary who says China is ‘forcing us to take counter-actions because we have commitments to the Philippines'
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The snippet — which made the rounds in the region — was only one of the handful of tense exchanges during Hegseth’s confirmation hearing. It’s also, perhaps, a pessimistic preview of the kind of personalities American allies will have to figure out when Donald Trump takes his oath as the President of the United States.Joshua Espeña, who teaches international studies at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines, has a less bleak view.
“Trilateral cooperation is a highly important framework in realizing free and open Indo-Pacific based on rule of law,” Iwaya, who will be attending Trump’s inauguration, told reporters in Manila. The Manila visit was his first to an ASEAN country in 2025.“We reaffirmed to continue our communication with the incoming US administration. Southeast Asia is located at a strategic pivot in the Indo-Pacific… thus, partnership with Southeast Asia is vital for regional stability.
Marco Rubio, Trump’s pick for Secretary of State, would be a participant in that first Trump 2.0-era foreign ministers QUAD meeting. He said during his Senate confirmation hearing on January 16: “The Chinese believe that the US are a great power in inevitable decline and that they are in inevitable rise. They already are… and we are going to have to deal with them.”
Philippine Foreign Secretary Enrique Manalo, who has overseen the “hyperdrive” in US-Philippine bilateral ties under Biden, outgoing State Secretary Antony Blinken, and outgoing Defense Chief Lloyd Austin, downplayed speculation that the Trump administration would be less interested in engagement with the Indo-Pacific.
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