Washington: The National Security Strategy (NSS) of US President Donald Trump’s administration serves as a wake-up call for Southeast Asia, signalling that the US may no longer act as a counterbalance to China’s assertiveness in the region. The era of US security guarantees for parts in the region may also end sooner than anticipated, a report said on Wednesday.
According to a report in Eurasia Review, the emerging environment shifts towards a more uncertain, competitive, and fragmented order, requiring Southeast Asian countries to reinvigorate ASEAN-led regional institutions and broaden their strategic partnerships with regional powers.
“As the Philippines takes over as the 2026 ASEAN Chair, it is clear that the South China Sea dispute and maritime security issue will form the very core of the Philippine agenda for ASEAN 2026. The best case scenario for the Philippines would be a revised and fortified code of conduct on South China Sea, the chances of which have gone weaker latterly, particularly keeping in view the Trump administration’s long-awaited 2025 National Security Strategy (NSS), released in December 2025, which mark a fundamental shift from liberal internationalist values to a more transactional, interest-based, America-first ‘chaos’ in US foreign policy,” the report detailed.
“Apparently, the US no longer seems interested in containing China and is open to accepting ‘the outsized influence of larger, richer, and stronger nations’ as ‘a timeless truth of international relations’. In other words, China and Russia are no longer its competitors or threats to the Rules-based international order, and both Beijing and Moscow can have their own spheres of influence. Trump’s Venezuela adventure and statements about taking Greenland from Denmark have only encouraged China and Russia to establish their own versions of the Donroe doctrines in their respective spheres of influence,” it added.
The report emphasised that as Washington sharpens its focus on its immediate hemisphere, Southeast Asian nations could face strategic uncertainty, particularly as many countries in the region have long depended on the US as a counterbalance to China’s growing presence and as a partner in maintaining regional stability. However, the shift in American focus, it said, reflected in the NSS may prompt Southeast Asia’s political and economic elites to reassess their approach amid the evolving great-power dynamics.
“While a document, be it NSS, cannot truly guide Trump’s often impulsive and flippant foreign policy, Southeast Asia has already been less than a second fiddle for Trump. In the absence of a clearly defined US strategy for Southeast Asia, the region must adapt. The challenge for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries will be to strengthen their own institutions, such as the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), ADMM+, and EAS, while deepening intra-regional trust and cooperation vis-a-vis China,” the report noted.
(IANS)
