The IPEF - a U.S.-initiated trade and development partnership - is poised to bring in enthusiastic participation from several nations in the Asia-Pacific region. Notably, Southeast Asian states are well represented among members, giving the U.S. considerable influence right in China’s backyard.

India is stepping up to seek out stronger relationships with Southeast Asian countries, showing that China is not the only nation in the Pacific region that can provide boons and benefits to friendly partners.

“The U.S. once held the Philippines as a colonial possession, but now finds itself having to win back the Southeast Asian nation’s good graces to counter a rising China.”

Parallels between the U.S. withdrawal in Afghanistan and its previous defeat in Vietnam have been top of mind for many, nowhere more so than in Southeast Asia itself, where American intervention and the ensuing fallout is still being reckoned with today.

An abundance of examples show that countries in Southeast Asia want to develop beneficial relationships with both the U.S. and China. Thus, the U.S. hedge against China in the region is doomed to fail, despite the best efforts of visiting American officials.

Russia’s influence once stretched from the edge of Western Europe to the battlefields of Vietnam. Surpassed economically by the West and China, Russian foreign policy sees opportunity in Southeast Asia to restore its global reach.

Scholars from China and around Southeast Asia respond to questions about how the region views the second push by the United States to identify the origins of the coronavirus.

The United States has been unsuccessful in its attempts to rally Southeast Asia against China. In recent months, it has mounted a transparent effort to curry favor in the region. But nobody wants to choose between major trading powers. They’d rather keep their options open.

The U.S. has seemingly pulled out all the stops to advance its agenda in Southeast Asia, hoping to entice countries away from China. Yet, as members of China’s neighborhood, ASEAN members will find it hard to create distance between themselves and China, literally and figuratively.

While the U.S. pays lip service to the notion that ASEAN is at the core of the Indo-Pacific region, U.S. actions show it is side-stepping to another direction. By contrast, China’s attitude toward Southeast Asia looks much more sincere.