U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will join officials from India, South Korea and Japan this week to attend a Southeast Asian defense conference as Washington seeks to strengthen ties with the region after a year overshadowed by the U.S.-Israel war against Iran.
The conference will bring together defense officials from 11 member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and eight dialogue partner countries.
Australia, New Zealand, Russia and China will also send representatives to the talks, which will be held in the Philippines from Wednesday to Thursday.
The meeting, known as the ASEAN Defense Ministers’ Meeting Plus (ADMM Plus), will be held in parallel with ASEAN member state-only events by Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste and Vietnam.
State media said India is one of the dialogue partners hosting a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of ADMM-Plus to “review the ongoing defense relationship and explore ways to further strengthen the strategic partnership.”
William Yang, senior analyst for Northeast Asia at the International Crisis Group, told Al Jazeera that the focus will be on regional security concerns, including the ongoing civil war in Myanmar and maritime disputes between ASEAN countries and neighboring China.
“With the Philippines hosting this year’s summit, the South China Sea dispute will be a top priority issue,” he told Al Jazeera, adding that he expected Manila to ask ASEAN to finalize a code of conduct with China on how to approach maritime disputes and how to deal with disputes in the globally important waterway.
The Philippines, China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan all have overlapping claims to the South China Sea, but Beijing claims most of it as domestic waters.
These disputes often put Beijing at odds with its neighbors, particularly Manila, as both sides claim parts of the uninhabited Scarborough Shoal and the Spratly Islands.
Tensions have escalated sharply this month, with at least “eight close encounters” occurring in the South China Sea and the nearby Luzon Strait, according to the U.S. Naval Institute.
The spat turned into a war of words after Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Jin Kuan said China could “easily win” a war with the Philippines and a Philippine senator called for his ouster.
The Chinese government has not yet confirmed whether the Eastern Military Defense Minister will attend ADMM Plus in person, but there is a possibility that he may attend at the last minute. Bonnie Glaser, managing director of the German Marshall Fund’s Indo-Pacific program, said China’s defense secretary attended ADMM+ in 2024 and 2025, and Hegseth’s presence could be factored into Beijing’s calculations.
China and the United States have spent the past year repairing relations. Hegseth’s face-to-face meeting with Dong could also lay the groundwork for two meetings between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping later this year, following two meetings between Trump and Xi this year.
“There is certainly a possibility that he will attend this year as well,” Glaser told Al Jazeera via email. “I would not be surprised if Mr. Dong meets with Secretary Hegseth, especially since China has repeatedly stated that it attaches great importance to strengthening crisis communication and preventing crises between the U.S. and Chinese militaries.”
But analysts say a big part of Mr. Hegseth’s work in ASEAN will be reassuring ASEAN and its interlocutors that the United States remains committed to the region amid a months-long conflict with Iran.
The United States has raised eyebrows in Asia over the past year by shifting some military assets from South Korea and Japan to the Middle East, but President Trump has also sent mixed signals about his views on Taiwan, a potential new flashpoint in the region.
Ahead of his meeting with President Xi Jinping at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in November, President Trump has reportedly postponed large-scale arms deliveries to Taiwan, an unofficial ally of the United States, ahead of the Group of 20 (G20) summit in December.
“It will be interesting to see what Mr Hegseth says and does,” said Jia Ian Chong, a political scientist at the National University of Singapore. That’s because of recent comments by U.S. defense official Elbridge Colby suggesting that the U.S. government will focus on substantive action in the Asia-Pacific region rather than empty gestures.
“These adjustments will not be easy, so it will be interesting to see how Hegseth holds these lines while trying to maintain U.S. dominance,” Chong said.
