U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegers said the United States remains committed to the Indo-Pacific region while softening past rhetoric describing China as an imminent threat.
SINGAPORE – U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegers assured Pacific allies on Saturday that Washington remains committed to the region, but played down previous comments that China posed a threat.
Speaking to world leaders, diplomats and senior security officials at the Shangri-La Defense Conference in Singapore, Hegseth said the region had “profound implications for the security and prosperity of the United States” and that Washington’s top priority was “achieving a durable and favorable balance of power in the Pacific.”
This is the second time he has spoken at a forum hosted by the International Institute for Strategic Studies. Last year, he angered Beijing Warning of rapidly evolving threats from China, particularly its aggressive stance toward Taiwan. He said China is no longer just build military power To win Taiwan is to “train actively every day.”
This year’s meeting, however, comes only about two weeks after U.S. President Donald Trump met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing, followed by a phone call from Trump A “great leader” And said they will have a “beautiful future” together.
Heggs says China will not be allowed to dominate the region
Hegseth, who was with Trump in Beijing, said the two leaders agreed that China and the United States should “build a strategically stable and constructive relationship based on fairness and reciprocity, and reiterated that while our two countries will vigorously protect our respective interests, we can reach pragmatic and mutually beneficial agreements where our interests are aligned.”
However, he said that ensuring that China does not dominate the Indo-Pacific remains a top priority for the United States.
“We are justifiably alarmed by China’s historic military buildup and its expansion of military activity in the region and beyond,” he said.
“We have a clear assessment of the security environment and a mutual understanding that any hegemonic dominance in the Pacific would disrupt the balance of power in the region and undermine the balance we all seek to preserve.”
Later in the day, Chinese Major General Meng Xiangqing praised Hegseth’s remarks about the meeting between Xi Jinping and Trump, saying the consensus reached by the two leaders “should provide strategic guidance for China-U.S. relations in the next three years and beyond.”
When President Xi Jinping met with President Trump, he made it clear that this kind of constructive strategic stability should be positive stability with cooperation as the core, healthy stability with reasonable competition, normal stability with controllable differences, and lasting stability with the prospect of peace. “
U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth, a member of the congressional delegation participating in the meeting, accused the Trump administration of “couraging” China.
“I’m concerned that this administration is becoming distracted by wars in other parts of the world at the expense of our commitments in the Indo-Pacific,” the Illinois Democrat told reporters on the sidelines.
“My concern is that our president seems to be setting policy and he is doing what Beijing wants him to do,” she added.
After the meeting between Xi Jinping and Trump, the US President Questioning Washington’s will Defend Taiwan, calling a new $14 billion weapons program he has yet to approve “a very good bargaining chip for us with China.”
China claims the democratic, self-governing island as its own and Xi Jinping has not ruled out using force to seize it. The law requires the United States to help provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself, but the United States has adopted a policy of “strategic ambiguity” as to whether China will intervene militarily if it attacks Taiwan.
Hegseth told the forum that our “status has not changed” with respect to Taiwan, but would not comment on the arms deal.
“As the president has said, any decisions regarding future arms sales to Taiwan will be made by him,” he said.
U.S. praises countries that spend more on defense
He emphasized the Trump administration’s insistence that allies increase defense spending, saying “we need partners, not protectors.”
He praised the efforts of several Asian countries while repeating, without naming names, criticism of European allies who he said were “distracted by empty globalist rhetoric about a rules-based international order.”
“Our partners in Asia have long understood that the cornerstone of lasting partnerships is not based on idealistic values but on a concrete alignment of national interests,” he said.
“When our interests diverge, we adapt pragmatically, not dramatize or preach,” he added. “I think Western Europe is probably taking notice – this is a mentality that we fully embrace.”
Hegseth did not mention the war in Ukraine or Iran in his speech. Asked about Iran, he said only that Trump assured him that when negotiations with Tehran were concluded, “any deal will be a good deal.”
Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles, one of the countries praised for increasing military spending, said that while the rules-based international order was not perfect, “the task before us, including the major powers, was to revolutionize that order, not to dismember it.”
“When the rules apply, smaller states have agency,” Marlers said in a speech after Hegseth. “When rule yields to power, as others have said, sovereignty becomes the purview of the powerful, and no country in this room today, regardless of size, benefits from this outcome.”
UK, US and Australia announce new undersea drone program
At an event outside the conference, Heggs, Marles and UK Defense Secretary John Healey announced a new initiative in the AUKUS partnership, whose primary focus is the development and construction of nuclear-powered submarines.
Under the so-called second pillar of AUKUS, the trio said they would jointly invest in developing improved capabilities for underwater drones.
“Together we are producing a range of cutting-edge sensors or weapons systems for underwater drones,” Healy said, adding that this would help detect threats including underwater cables and pipelines.
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