CEBU, Philippines — The war with Iran has not — and will not — pull America’s focus away from the Pacific theater and communist China’s historic military buildup, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told regional allies Wednesday.
Mr. Hegseth met with fellow defense ministers here in a marathon of bilateral and multilateral engagements at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations defense ministers’ summit. Defense chiefs from Japan, Australia and the Philippines discussed the security of the First Island Chain, a strategically vital area stretching from the Malay Peninsula and the Philippines to Japan.
Officials from South Korea, India, Vietnam, Singapore and Malaysia also met with Mr. Hegseth on the sidelines of the event. The Pentagon chief was joined on the trip by Adm. Samuel J. Paparo, the commander of U.S. Pacific Command.
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“These meetings, the amount of time we spend with ASEAN members, with Japan, with South Korea, with Australia, with the Philippines, are a reflection of a force posture shift,” Mr. Hegseth told The Washington Times when asked how he was reassuring the region’s partners and allies that the U.S. was still focused on China and specifically the region around Taiwan.
The Chinese Communist Party’s stated goal of taking control of the U.S.-aligned island democracy of Taiwan, by force if necessary, hangs over the ASEAN gathering.
Many in the region see a rising threat of “gray zone” tactics by Beijing, including maritime harassment, aerial intimidation, cyberattacks and damage to undersea infrastructure.
Mr. Hegseth said China’s actions remain a key focus for the Trump administration, and America’s allies know that.
“These countries recognize that America uniquely has global obligations,” Mr. Hegseth said. “Just because we’re dealing with Iran never having a nuclear weapon, or just because we’re dealing with drug cartels in our own backyard, doesn’t mean our gaze is not on the recognition of the historic military buildup that the Chinese are undertaking.
“Because they’ve seen the focus here even while there’s been, as everybody would acknowledge, a great deal of action under the President Trump administration,” he said.
Defense leaders from ASEAN’s 10 member nations also met for unofficial, backchannel discussions. Regional news reports indicated that Japan and South Korea, both of which are official “dialogue partners” of ASEAN, also sent delegations to the event.
“Above the waterline or below, and I would encourage a lot of people when you look at these partnerships — there are things happening under the surface, that happen behind closed doors with understandings between countries,” Mr. Hegseth said, emphasizing that discussions and agreements about access and military contingency plans in the region are “meant to create dilemmas to ensure that the status quo doesn’t change.”
In his meeting with officials from the Philippines, Mr. Hegseth announced an increase in funding for the country’s armed forces to help modernize and “enhance interoperability along the First Island Chain.” The Pentagon did not offer details on that funding increase.
The summit is being held at a tense moment between the Philippines and China. In August, China claimed new controls over the Scarborough Reef, a sea feature claimed by both China and the Philippines, located within Manila’s exclusive economic zone.
Days later, People’s Liberation Army warships and Chinese coast guard vessels conducted high-profile naval drills around the reef.
In recent months, Chinese vessels have fired water cannons at Philippine fishing vessels in a bid to drive them out of the area. Both countries conduct patrols around the reef, and in August 2025, a Chinese coast guard vessel collided with a Chinese navy warship while both were pursuing a Philippine coast guard ship. China recently disclosed that two of its coast guard sailors died in the collision.
The latest clash between China and the Philippines took place July 20 when Chinese personnel hit and wounded a Philippine navy sailor at another disputed maritime feature called Second Thomas Shoal.
At the summit, Mr. Hegseth pointed to progress on “critical infrastructure and storage facilities” across the island nation that are part of America’s Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement with the Philippines.
The Pentagon’s response to China’s “historic buildup” has been to lean heavily on regional allies while balancing competing demands elsewhere in the world. The war in Iran, for example, has necessitated the U.S. Navy pulling some assets out of the Pacific, including an aircraft carrier.
Adm. Daryl Caudle, chief of naval operations and member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that reality posed a dilemma.
“The fact that we’re short on carriers in [U.S.] Pacific Command, because we keep moving them into Central Command, yeah, of course, it does,” Adm. Caudle told reporters in August.
“We know the pacing threat is the PRC,” Adm. Caudle said, referring to the People’s Republic of China. “We want to be postured to actually make sure that we’re prepared for any kind of conflict in the Pacific.”
Adm. Paparo, the Pacific Command leader, accompanied Mr. Hegseth for many of the bilateral meetings Wednesday, including meetings with the allied working group known as the “squad” — the U.S., Australia, Japan and the Philippines — and with officials from Singapore and Malaysia.
Mr. Hegseth stressed that the Trump administration remains “willing to talk” with Beijing. Chinese President Xi Jinping visited the White House Sept. 23-25 for an official state visit. Top U.S. officials have, over the past two years, tried to tamp down the narrative that the two countries are on a military collision course.
Mr. Hegseth said that dialogue remains “the responsible thing to do.” He said discussions are taking place at the military level as well, and he has always “welcomed” the chance to meet with his Chinese counterparts.
Although Mr. Hegseth and other officials seem to have made a point of using less confrontational rhetoric toward Beijing, that does not mean the Pentagon is backing down. Mr. Hegseth told The Times that the U.S. is taking action when Chinese gray zone attacks cross the line.
“Look at the actions that we took, even with Confucius Institutes recently, inside the department. It can happen in academia, it can happen in culture, it can happen in IT,” Mr. Hegseth said. “So we’re cognizant of the world we live in, recognizing that the lanes overlap and President Trump is very clear-eyed. We’re very clear-eyed.”
The Pentagon earlier this week designated China’s Confucius Institutes as threats to U.S. national security for their roles in malign activities at American universities.
Mr. Hegseth said in a social media video that Confucius Institutes are “Chinese government-backed propaganda cultural programs” operating as “sleeper” cells that infiltrated U.S. universities in nearly every state.
• Bill Gertz contributed to this report.
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