Onstage in Singapore on May 31 at the annual Shangri-La Dialogue defense forum, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told Indo-Pacific leaders that the United States was “here to stay.” He went on to articulate a vision of the United States as an “Indo-Pacific nation” committed to reestablishing deterrence against China. But if the main goal of Hegseth’s address was to reassure Asian partners and allies questioning U.S. security commitments to the region, then the administration fell short.
Hegseth’s confident rhetoric belied a more uneasy reality. His speech accelerated a mismatch between U.S. promises to “ pivot ” to the Indo-Pacific and its consistent failure to deliver. Nowhere is this mismatch more evident than in Southeast Asia, where China continues to expand its influence.