In the business of tanks but not trade? How Hegseth's message is landing in the Asia-Pacific

It may have been the namesake of the fictional paradise in British author James Hilton's Lost Horizon, but the Shangri-La Dialogue was anything but.

- Clement Tan

New Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth's debut address at the key annual security forum might have assured allies the Indo-Pacific remains its "priority theatre," pledging to prevent war and deter aggression so that "shared interests align for peace and prosperity."

But it also raised more than a few eyebrows among those gathered in Singapore this weekend.

For one thing, his address included more than 20 overt China references — warning that the China "threat" is now "real" and "could be imminent."

To this region, China's increasing assertiveness, particularly in the South China Sea, may have created concern, but Mr Hegseth's sharp rhetoric is a sharp departure from his predecessor's.

Yet Mr Hegseth suggested a quid pro quo for US military presence here, in pushing Asian countries to emulate Europe by dramatically upping defense spending to 5 per cent of their respective gross domestic product.

"How can it make sense for countries in Europe to do that while key allies and partners in Asia spend far less in the face of a far more formidable threat from communist China, not to mention North Korea," said the former Fox News presenter, as he unpacked his "common sense" US position on the Indo-Pacific in Singapore on May 31.

Reminiscent of a similar call by the US defense chief for European allies in February at the Munich Security Conference accompanied by a ferocious lecture by Vice-President J.D. Vance — the comparison with Europe raised concerns. Was this call in Singapore one to really share the burden with Indo-Pacific allies, or is it more of a shift of burden as in Europe?

Initial fears of US abandonment after Mr Vance's remarks may have receded, but there is an unmistakable transactionalism that undergirds much of the Trump administration's quest to pursue its America First policy in its capricious on-again, off-again measures that subsequently followed in areas relating to security and trade with the rest of the world.