The United States under President Donald Trump sees South-east Asia as the fulcrum of its "free and open Indo-Pacific" strategy rather than a region excluded from it, said its newly appointed point man for security initiatives in East Asia and the Pacific, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Alex Wong.
In an interview with The Straits Times and Western wire services in Singapore yesterday, he described Asean as not just the core but also "the fulcrum of the Indo-Pacific policy and a geographical truth".
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