The annual US-ASEAN foreign ministers' meeting took place on Thursday, against the background of Korean Peninsula tensions escalating and ASEAN tilting toward China. The policies adopted by the US in the Asia-Pacific region are not only of concern to ASEAN countries, but to people all over the world. 

The South China Sea issue was raised in the US-ASEAN foreign ministers’ meeting. Tao Wenzhao, research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told Dialogue that the South China Sea situation ‍has improved a lot in the past year. 

“The situation in the South China Sea is now much better than a year ago since the new president of the Philippines Mr. Duterte took office. And he changed his predecessors’ policy to rely on the United States too much. And he made a kind of rebalance between the US and China.” 

In the meeting, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson asked ASEAN countries to take measures to put more pressure on the DPRK. Liu Qing at the China Institute of International Studies shared his views on the tensions on the Korean Peninsula. 

“I don’t think the situation will become worse and worse. And I think there will be a big chance for the United States and DPRK to talk bilaterally, even the north and the south to sit down and to talk. I think there is still that chance.” 

Aside from security issues, economic cooperation was also talked about in the meeting. Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP ) and China's Belt and Road Initiative are bringing China and ASEAN countries closer. On the contrary, the US has pulled out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal. Einar Tangen, current affairs commentator, is not optimistic about the cooperation between the US and ASEAN. 

“He (Trump) is not offering ASEAN anything. The only thing he put on the table is he won’t force anything on you economically. It’s almost unbelievable that he thinks he’s going to get cooperation from this group.”