US defence secretary Jim Mattis will try to unite Southeast Asian countries against China during a meeting of defence ministers in the Philippines on Monday, as President Donald Trump prepares to send a strong message to challenge Beijing.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations has frequently been fragmented as the US and China jockey for influence. This has been magnified by a dispute over artificial islands in the South China Sea that China has built and equipped with military installations.
At the same time the US has lost influence in the region after Mr Trump appeared to give his predecessor’s “pivot to Asia” short shrift, cancelling a trade pact that the region had spent years working towards.
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