By Clement Tan | June 2, 2025 | The Straits Times
SINGAPORE – It may have been the namesake of the fictional paradise in British author James Hilton’s Lost Horizon, but the Shangri-La Dialogue was anything but.
New Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth’s debut address at the key annual security forum might have assured allies the Indo-Pacific remains its “priority theatre”, pledging to prevent war and deter aggression so that “shared interests align for peace and prosperity”.
But it also raised more than a few eyebrows among those gathered in Singapore this weekend.
Continue reading “In the business of tanks but not trade? How Hegseth’s message is landing in Asia-Pacific”