Kuala Lampur, June 2 -- At the IISS Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth delivered what sounded like a strategic imperative: Asian allies and partners should raise their defence spending to 5 per cent of GDP to match the scale of the threat posed by China.

US allies and partners in Asia continue to spend well below 5 per cent of GDP on defence. In 2024, Singapore allocated 2.8 per cent of its GDP to defence, followed by South Korea (2.6 per cent), Taiwan (2.1 per cent), Australia (1.9 per cent), Japan (1.4 per cent) and the Philippines (1.3 per cent), according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

South-east Asian defence officials also attending the Shangri-La Dialogue broadly welcomed...