Senior US officials on Monday pushed back against suggestions of American retreat from the Indo-Pacific, declaring that Washington is recalibrating its foreign assistance to more effectively outcompete China in the strategically vital region while maintaining support for allies through targeted aid and security cooperation.
The focus, they said, is shifting away from broad assistance towards targeted partnerships that serve US interests and advance a free and open Indo-Pacific, ranging from critical infrastructure to maritime security, critical minerals and military financing aimed at bolstering regional resilience and countering adversarial influence.
Allison Hooker, US under secretary of state for political affairs, described the administration’s strategy as a recalibration, not a pullback.
“The United States is a Pacific power, and the future of the Indo-Pacific is directly tied to our core national interests,” she said at the inaugural Indo-Pacific Foreign Assistance Conference on Monday, adding that Washington’s commitment to the region remains “unwavering”.
Hooker explained that US foreign assistance is increasingly being deployed as a “force multiplier” to deliver long-term security gains rather than short-term relief. The goal, she said, is to equip countries with tools that strengthen regional peace and security over time.
Officials in Washington argue the new approach reflects the 2025 national security strategy, which designates the Indo-Pacific a key economic and geopolitical battleground and underscores alliances and partnerships as necessary for prosperity in the region. Some critics have slammed it as a pullback.
A report by the Korea Economic Institute of America, a Washington-based think tank, criticised the 2025 US blueprint as a strategy of “retreat” that “leaves Asia to manage the consequences”.
“The NSS makes it clear that the United States will stand aside and ask its allies to take on the task of defending the Pacific and Europe,” the report said last week.
Pointing to the Philippines, Hooker highlighted US support for private-sector development in the Luzon Economic Corridor, a flagship trilateral initiative launched by the US, Japan and the Philippines in 2024 under the G7’s Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment.
The initiative focuses on connecting strategic hubs – Subic Bay, Clark, Manila and Batangas – with investments in rail, ports, clean energy, semiconductors and other sectors to drive transparent, private sector-led growth as an alternative to what the US calls “coercive” models.
“The Philippines continues to face challenges in the South China Sea,” Hooker said.
She added that the US continues to provide “support to private sector development in the Luzon corridor to bolster this key ally’s economic resilience”.
“Such assistance is just one example of a number of efforts that underscore US commitment to maritime security, the freedom of navigation and collective defence in the South China Sea,” she said.
The NSS, unveiled last week, does not mention the Philippines, a long-standing treaty ally of the US.
Tensions have escalated in the region in recent years through repeated confrontations involving Chinese coastguard vessels and maritime militia.
The latest incident occurred on Friday near Sabina Shoal, known as Escoda Shoal in the Philippines, where Chinese coastguard ships fired water cannons at Filipino fishing boats, injuring three fishermen and causing significant damage to two vessels.
Manila protested the actions as harassment, while Beijing claimed it took necessary control measures against vessels it accused of provocation.
On Monday, Under Secretary for Foreign Assistance Jeremy Lewin stressed that US aid is increasingly framed as a tool for economic partnership and strategic results rather than traditional donor programmes.
“President Trump is a businessman and a deal maker,” Lewin said. “Our assistance is designed to deepen trade and cooperation with partner countries.”
“We are going to spend much more in the Indo-Pacific over the coming years than we ever have before, and we’re going to spend it in different ways,” he said.
Lewin cited a major expansion of healthcare assistance to the Philippines worth $250 million, coordinated directly with the government, and highlighted plans to increase foreign military financing for allies and partners in the region.
“We are going to be providing, I think, more foreign military financing as we look to sort of leverage the American defence industrial base, both to lead the revitalisation of our own military at home, but also to help our allies defend their security interests in the Indo-Pacific,” he added.
Fears that Washington is exiting the foreign assistance arena have been fuelled by the administration’s rigorous “America first” review of all overseas spending, which paused several legacy programmes and proposed significant cuts to the State Department and USAID budgets in favour of domestic priorities. Earlier this year, the Trump administration aimed to cut US$5 billion in foreign aid already approved by Congress.
This perception has been amplified by concerns that any reduction in US visibility could cede ground to Beijing, whose Belt and Road Initiative, a multimillion-dollar development programme, continues to offer ready capital to developing nations across the region.
Speaking after Hooker and Lewin on Monday, Michael DeSombre, assistant secretary for the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, highlighted investments in Papua New Guinea and the Republic of the Marshall Islands, including port upgrades, cargo inspection infrastructure and reconstruction projects.
DeSombre also encouraged cooperation with private-sector partners and regional multilateral frameworks, including the Quad – a strategic dialogue between the United States, Japan, India and Australia; the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean); and the Pacific Islands Forum, which brings together 18 Pacific countries to discuss regional issues.
“In the Republic of [the] Marshall Islands, we are supporting the construction of a new parliament building,” he said.
DeSombre asserted that the US was not going out of the “foreign assistance business, as some media narratives have claimed in the review,” but that it views the issue as an “opportunity to fundamentally reimagine how foreign assistance is done”.
“We want to maintain America’s unrivalled soft power through which we exercise positive influence throughout the Indo-Pacific region,” he added. -- SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
