After spending in recent months, criticizing initiatives for diversity and prioritized, in his words, in “war battles against alertness” in the Pentagon, Defense Minister Pitt Hegseth He is facing a rather different project this weekend. It will appear at the Asian Security Forum, which is being held annually in a luxury hotel and will try to reassure a group of defense and diplomats, saying that the United States remains a credible and stable partner.

However, this can be much more difficult to do than it should actually have. President Donald Trump’s growing confrontation with China is Source of concern in the area, With many countries in Southeast Asia not being prepared to choose a side. The launch of an extensive trade war by the White House, which has imposed tariffs on geopolitical allies and opponents, has prompted many long -term partners to challenge their confidence in the US.

Last February, Singapore’s then Minister of Defense NG ENG HEN said Trump’s actions had eroded the “moral legitimacy” of the US and had changed their image in Asia “from liberator to a large subversive factor and a landlord.”

In an interview on Thursday, José Ramos-Horta, president of Eastern Timor, warned that the disintegration of USAID, which has chaired many development projects in Asia, “kills the vanguard of your diplomacy” and adds: “We are in a sinking world,

The French President Emmanuel Macron It will be the one who will make the central speech at Shangri-La Dialogue, the security forum being held in Singapore for more than two decades by the International Strategic Studies Institute of Strategic Studies, a British Think Tank.

In a report published by the International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS) prior to the meeting, it states that Trump’s return to the White House “increased the level of concern between regional and global policy -making”. On Tuesday, in a speech in Vietnam, Macron warned of a fragile world time where, “with the impulse of a superpower, everything can change.”

Heguez, who will take the step on Saturday morning, is expected to adopt a hard line against China. “Minister Heguez will present to Asian allies why the United States is a better partner than [το Κινεζικό Κομμουνιστικό Κόμμα]”, He informed reporters this week a senior US defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

But this may not be the message that many of the concentrated Asian defense officials want to hear in the room. For some countries, the trade war and Trump’s irregular methods may be an equally source of concern as China’s confidence is growing in places such as the sea of ​​southern China or opposite the strait of Taiwan. Instead of launching a confrontation, most of Southeast Asia’s governments would probably prefer clear messages to both Washington and Beijing that neither forces want to cause an unnecessary escalation of tensions. And the notion that the US is complicit in the brutal destruction of Gaza by Israel has also sparked public rage in countries with a Muslim majority, including Malaysia and Indonesia.

Although the war in Gaza and Ukraine overshadowed the efforts of the Biden government in Asia, the predecessors of the tramp are widely credited with strengthening security partnerships with a number of Asian countries and the strengthening of US credibility. The Biden government also adopted a more humble approach to Asian geopolitical.

However, top US military officials insist that, despite the inconvenience caused by Trump, There is no great rupture In the US strategy for Asia. In an essay on Foreign Affairs this week, Ely Ratner, a former assistant defense minister in the Biden government, argued that the foundations remain for the White House to push for an extensive “collective defense agreement” to tackle China in the Pacific.

“As far as defense issues are concerned, there has been much more continuity to date than discomfort,” he wrote. “Since the government avoids the debilitating financial measures aimed at the US allies, the trends that show the way to collective defense in the region are likely to continue.”

More tense, however, is the situation of US-China Relations. “The two great powers have to find a new balance, starting with their hesitant efforts to end the trade war that the duties began” Day of Liberation “of Trump,” a report by the International Crisis Group.

In a sign of how far away a substantial recession can be, China made the unusual move not to send the Minister of Defense or other top defense officials to Singapore, where they could have met with their US counterparts in the SHA hotel halls. The “fire” in the widespread dispute between the two forces continued, with the latest Trump government announcement that it will “aggressively” recall the visas of thousands of Chinese students studying at US universities.

The US-China rift seems to be deepened. “Both countries are, and found, on a strategic disconnection course,” said Elizabeth Economy, a Chinese expert at the Hoover Foundation. “There is a complete lack of confidence and very few channels or opportunities to strengthen any kind of positive message.”

Ishaan Tharoor is a foreign affairs columnist in The Washington Post, where he writes the newsletter and the ToDay’s WorldView column. In 2021, he won the Arthur Ross Media Award in Commentary from the American Academy of Diplomacy. He was a senior author and correspondent in Time magazine, first based in Hong Kong and later New York.