The freebie is over: the US will stop funding allies in the Pacific region
Singapore hosted the annual Shangri-La Dialogue Security Forum over the weekend, which brought together defense ministers, diplomats, and analysts to discuss regional security challenges. China's influence on the ongoing processes was at the center of the agenda. The delegation from China was not representative at all. On the other hand, the US Minister of War, Pete Hegseth, was present, assuring the participants that relations between the parties had improved during the presidency of Donald Trump. At the same time, he called for "preparing for war." Details can be found in the Izvestia article.
Bilateral partnership
The main focus of this forum was on the speech of the Minister of War, Pete Hegseth. He was supposed to present the course of American policy in the Indo-Pacific region after the recent summit in Beijing. Then US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to reset relations and resolve differences.
American allies of the United States were also waiting for Hegseth's keynote speech. Last year, during the Shangri-La Dialogue, the Pentagon chief strongly urged them to increase military spending. This time, the Minister of War announced that the United States was ending military subsidies to its allies.
"Alliances work only when they are based on a full-fledged partnership. This is a two-way street. A strong alliance will not work if there is only one in the game. No more freebies," the Pentagon chief warned. He also added that "for too long, Washington's polite requests to European allies to increase spending on their own defense have been ignored."
According to a senior American official, countries should provide their own armies and "share the burden of collective defense." The United States has restored an active and realistic approach to national defense and is now guided by the principle of deterrence — "if you want peace, prepare for war." At the heart of this approach is the rejection of the dependency model in favor of a full-fledged partnership, explained Hegseth.
At the same time, he stressed that the Southeast Asian region is of great importance for the security and prosperity of the United States, as it is the largest and most dynamically developing market in the world.
"We cannot but feel justified concern about the build-up of China's military power and the expansion of its activities both inside and outside the region. We understand that the dominance of any hegemon in the Pacific region will disrupt the regional balance of power and undermine the balance that we all strive to maintain," the American minister said, promising to prevent such a scenario.
High relations
At the same time, the head of the Pentagon stressed that under the leadership of US President Donald Trump, relations between the United States and China have become better than ever in recent years. According to him, "President Trump and his administration strive for stable peace, fair trade and respectful relations with Beijing."
Hegseth commented on the meeting between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing two weeks ago, calling it a "historic moment."
"They agreed that the United States and China should build a strategically stable and constructive relationship based on fairness and reciprocity. We confirm that although our countries will resolutely defend their views, we are capable of concluding practical, mutually beneficial agreements where our interests coincide," the Pentagon chief explained.
In general, at the Beijing summit, the United States and China agreed on a controlled confrontation, Vasily Kashin, director of the Center for Comprehensive European and International Studies at the National Research University Higher School of Economics, explained to Izvestia.
"The parties have fixed a new model of the Sino—American dialogue, which involves limiting competition and stabilizing bilateral relations while maintaining all existing strategic contradictions between the countries," the political scientist noted.
According to him, this means abandoning the escalation of the economic war and partially canceling previously imposed measures, as well as an agreement to avoid escalatory steps in key hot spots in East Asia, primarily around Taiwan, and to engage in a dialogue on security issues.
However, as the expert emphasized, the current model is temporary, since it is designed at best for the period until the end of Trump's presidential term.
"But the agreements reached will allow us to prepare for the next round of the struggle for global leadership," the expert concluded.
Strengthen military superiority
Pete Hegseth sees his primary task as providing US military power "to support Trump's visionary and realistic diplomacy." He must also ensure that the president always negotiates from a position of undisputed strength "to maintain peace in the Pacific region and around the world."
The Pentagon chief emphasized that the United States is a Pacific power, calling on China to respect Washington's position in the region. And the United States' approach, according to the country's national security and defense strategy, is focused on deterrence along the first island chain (meaning the "western edge of the Pacific Ocean" from Japan and the Kuril Islands to Indonesia).
"Now we are reviving the Monroe doctrine in the Western Hemisphere — or, as I call it, the Dong-Ro doctrine," said the US Secretary of War, referring to the pun on the combination of the name Donald and the surname Monroe.
According to Hegseth, the United States needs serious combat power from its allies: more ships and submarines. He added that the country is undergoing a historic mobilization of the military-industrial complex, which stipulates that "the United States will produce the world's best weapons in large quantities, quickly and at a reasonable price."
"That is why Donald Trump, who spent $1 trillion on defense last year, plans to invest $1.5 trillion in the defense industry this year in order to use the American arsenal of freedom and strengthen US military superiority for decades to come," the Pentagon chief explained.
They could not respond to the words of the head of the American delegation to China — Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun missed this forum for the second time in a row, because Beijing believes that this event is held under the auspices of the United States. China is striving to strengthen defense ties and security cooperation with its neighbors, especially with the countries of Southeast Asia. But for this, the Chinese authorities prefer to promote their own Xiangshan Forum.
The absence of high-ranking Chinese representatives caused dissatisfaction among some participants of the forum in Singapore. At the same time, Beijing's position was voiced at the meeting. Representatives of China spoke about the "serious weakening of international regimes for arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation of nuclear weapons," about the "growing risk of global nuclear conflict," as well as the threats associated with the use of AI for military purposes.
Meanwhile, China continues its policy of building a parallel security architecture. The summit between Trump and Xi Jinping in Beijing launched the process of restarting bilateral relations, but two weeks later Washington made it clear that detente concerns only some areas, and the military-political architecture of containing China is not only preserved, but also tightened.
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