After the United States officially withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said that the country hopes to deploy medium-range missiles in Asia. This remark quickly sparked widespread controversy, and most countries don’t want to see the terrible scene of a missile race in the region.

China may not have been the start of the China-US trade war, but it is a key factor in finishing it. Beijing must consider serious reform if it wants to repair its ties with the U.S. and preserve its ties with the rest of the globe.

America’s apparent willingness, as part of a deal aimed at forestalling the rise of a new long-range missile threat, to accept a North Korea armed with short- to medium-range missiles is giving Japan the jitters.

Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte has sent mixed signals about how he will pursue his country’s South China Sea arbitration award against China in 2016, and his recent rhetoric promising to take a tougher stance on China may not come to fruition.

The negative consequences of U.S. involvement with Mekong countries are real but limited. The U.S. has the potential to continue to fuel tension over issues such as water resources in the region.

The normalization of U.S. Coast Guard presence in the South China Sea is likely to lead to greater competition and interference. Far from keeping the peace, U.S. intrusions into the region are deliberate exercises of power that aim to assert control.

In a trade war between two of the world’s largest economies, there are no winners. The U.S.-China trade spat will have spillover effects, with severe consequences for not only Asia, but the rest of the world.

The US-China rivalry constitutes a new formidable challenge to Southeast Asia’s cohesion, so they should continue to engage all powers and reinforce consensus among themselves.

In the Shangri-La Summit, the Trump administration introduced a new, muscular Indo-Pacific strategy, which is fueled by private interests and foreign governments - not the interests of the US, China or emerging Asia.