00:00Thanks, Faye. Other than what is going on around ASEAN, we also want to take a broader look with regards to the US at the Asia-Pacific Roundtable.
00:10Now, with shifting regional dynamics, does the US still hold significant influence within Asia?
00:16That is the question our correspondent Faye Kwan posed to Elena Noor, Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
00:52So, realistically now, the United States is an indispensable power to Asia.
01:00If you just look at the military basis in Japan, in Korea, the number of US troops there, the US has been there, will probably continue to be there for a long time.
01:11The US is also a treaty ally to two countries in Southeast Asia, the Philippines and Thailand.
01:18The US has expanded its presence in the Philippines.
01:21So, in terms of security, defence ties, the US remains an indispensable partner to some countries in Asia writ large, probably not all.
01:32But if you look at kind of the economic weightage of the US in Asia, that's probably going to wane a little.
01:39There are some conversations about de-dollarization, for example.
01:44I don't think we're there yet.
01:46But certainly, there are countries in the region that are trying to buffer themselves against the particularities, the uncertainties of US economic policy right now.
01:57And then, that talk about an ASEAN currency on the horizon.
02:03But then, if we're looking back then on the first six months of a Trump 2.0 term, and the US seeing as how it's growing inward focus, and not a lot of emphasis on ASEAN, as you pointed out earlier.
02:17So, what can we realistically expect from Washington's engagement with Southeast Asia down the line?
02:23Yeah, you know, I think there's a lot of discussion in Southeast Asia about what to expect from Washington in the first six months of President Trump's administration, and for the rest of his term.
02:33I know there's been a lot of hand-wringing.
02:36I've done a bit of that myself.
02:38But, honestly, I don't think it's such a bad idea for Southeast Asia to be low on the radar screen of Washington.
02:46Washington is certainly preoccupied with many other urgencies and priorities right now.
02:52And given the tariff wars that President Trump has unleashed across the world, including here, it's probably a good thing that we're not high up on a priority list.
03:02So, in terms of what we can expect, that's really up in the air right now.
03:08As we all know, President Trump's policies can change on a whim.
03:14And so, I think that's why I mentioned it's probably a safer thing to do in the long run for us to buffer against some of these unpredictabilities by focusing on ourselves, building our resilience in the longer term.
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