U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth assured Pacific allies on Saturday that Washington remained committed to the region, but toned down previous comments calling China a threat.
Address at Shangri-La Dialogue
Speaking to world leaders, diplomats, and top security officials at the Shangri-La defense conference in Singapore, Hegseth said the region “has profound implications for U.S. security and prosperity” and that Washington's priority was to “achieve a lasting and favorable balance of power in the Pacific.”
It was his second time addressing the forum. 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.”
Context of US-China Relations
This year, the meeting comes only about two weeks after U.S. President Donald Trump visited Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing, following which Trump called Xi a “great leader” and said they would have a “fantastic future together.” Hegseth, who was with Trump in Beijing, said the two leaders agreed that China and the U.S. 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.”
Commitment to Indo-Pacific Balance
However, Hegseth emphasized it remained an American priority to ensure 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.”
Criticism from Congress
U.S. 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. “I am concerned that it seems like our president is entering into policies where he’s doing what Beijing wants him to do.”
Taiwan and Arms Sales
After the Xi-Trump meetings, Trump raised questions about Washington’s willingness to defend Taiwan, calling a new $14 billion arms package he has yet to approve “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 U.S. is required by law to help Taiwan defend itself, though it follows a policy of “strategic ambiguity” on whether it would intervene militarily if China attacked the island. Hegseth told the forum 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.
Defense Spending and Partnerships
Hegseth underscored the Trump administration's insistence that allies increase defense spending, saying “we need partners, not protectorates.” He praised several Asian countries 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 moralizing. I think Western Europe might take note — this is a mindset we fully embrace.”
Omissions and Responses
Hegseth did not mention the wars in Ukraine or Iran in his speech. When asked about Iran, he only said Trump had assured him that when negotiations with Tehran concluded, “any deal will be a good deal.”
Australian Defense 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. “When the rules yield to power, sovereignty becomes the purview of the powerful, and no state in this room today, whatever its size, is well served by that outcome.”
