Hegseth backs bigger India role in Indo-Pacific, says US Navy vessels to get support

‘A critical anchor to hold the line’: Hegseth on India

Speaking at the forum convened annually by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), Hegseth’s framing of India’s role was the strongest the Trump administration has articulated since taking office.

“In South Asia, India is a critical anchor to hold the line,” Hegseth said. “A powerful India acting in its own self-interest advances our shared goal of maintaining a balance of power across the region.”

He linked India’s role to the broader US burden-sharing demand. “India is modernising its military to carry its share of the security burden, particularly in the Indian Ocean,” Hegseth said.

In the most operationally specific line of his India remarks, Hegseth said New Delhi was “building out the heavy industrial and logistics capacity to sustain high-end military operations, including the ability to repair and maintain our shared platforms and support US Navy vessels operating forward in the theatre.”

He confirmed deepening defence-industrial cooperation: “We have also committed to pursuing co-production with India to advance capabilities like Javelin anti-tank guided munitions.”

India’s senior representative at the Singapore forum is Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh, who on the sidelines outlined India’s vision for a “stable, secure and inclusive Indo-Pacific” at an academic-policy engagement attended by Indian High Commissioner to Singapore Shilpak Ambule, per the Ministry of Defence. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is hosting the 2nd Australia-India Defence Ministers’ Dialogue in India after Australian Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles concludes his Shangri-La engagements.

‘Two nuclear-capable countries’: Hegseth credits Trump with India-Pakistan peace

Hegseth also credited Trump with helping bring about the cessation of hostilities between India and Pakistan after their four-day confrontation in May 2025.

“You saw that in the ability of the president to come together on brokering a peace between India and Pakistan, two nuclear capable countries,” Hegseth said.

Trump has repeatedly claimed since the conflict that he helped secure peace between the two neighbours, by some Indian critics’ count, close to 100 times in the past year, a framing the Indian government has rejected through MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, with India maintaining that the ceasefire ending Operation Sindoor was reached through direct talks between the Directors General of Military Operations of the two militaries.

The US Secretary of War said both countries would continue to view each other through the prism of security concerns, and signalled that Washington was not, “from our view right now,” labelling either side a threat to the United States.

“I think both sides there are going to see understandable threats coming from the other, maybe some of which we see differently, and countries are going to want to develop ICBM (Intercontinental Ballistic Missile) threats, but we are not pointing a finger, at least from our view right now, at either country and calling them a threat to us,” he said.

Hegseth’s framing represents a notable softening of the March 2026 US Intelligence Community Annual Threat Assessment, in which Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee on March 19 that Pakistan’s long-range ballistic missile development “potentially could include ICBMs with the range capable of striking the Homeland”, placing Pakistan alongside Russia, China, North Korea and Iran.

Hegseth also praised both countries’ contributions to international stability. “We are grateful for, you know, in each of their lanes, the benefits they have given to peace around the world,” he said.

‘A true friendship’: Hegseth on Pakistan’s role

Hegseth went further to acknowledge Pakistan’s military and political leadership by name in the context of regional peace negotiations — a reference widely read as alluding to Pakistan’s role in the ongoing US-Iran ceasefire talks.

“I mentioned India here, but I very easily could have mentioned Pakistan and the role that the field marshal and the prime minister are playing in peace negotiations,” Hegseth said. “I think an unexpected development and a true friendship developing there, which I think is important.”

Pakistan, under Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Field Marshal Asim Munir, has emerged as the principal regional mediator in the West Asia conflict, brokering the early-April US-Iran ceasefire and hosting the most recent round of bilateral peace talks in Islamabad. Earlier this week, Sharif said Islamabad hoped to host the next round of US-Iran negotiations soon.

‘Rightful alarm’ over China’s buildup

The China-focused thrust of Hegseth’s Saturday plenary was sharper than the India passages, though noticeably more measured than his 2025 speech, coming roughly two weeks after Trump’s visit to Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing.

“There is rightful alarm regarding China’s historic military buildup and the expansion of its military activities in the region and beyond,” Hegseth said. “A Pacific dominated by any hegemon would unravel the regional balance of power. No state, including China, can impose its hegemony and hold the security or prosperity of our nation and our allies in question.”

He coupled the warning with a conciliatory note on US-China bilateral ties, saying relations were “better than they have been in many years” under Trump, with more frequent military-to-military engagement helping to manage tensions. “We are meeting more frequently with our Chinese counterparts by maintaining open lines of military-to-military communication,” he said. Hegseth said Washington was not seeking “confrontation” with Beijing despite concerns over China’s military build-up.

Chinese minister skips the meeting again

Chinese Defence Minister Admiral Dong Jun skipped the dialogue for the second consecutive year, with Beijing’s delegation led at a lower level. Zhou Bo, a senior fellow at Tsinghua University and retired People’s Liberation Army senior colonel who was part of the Chinese delegation, described US-China relations as “complicated,” but said Hegseth had struck “a much better tone” this year than last, attributing the shift to Trump’s Beijing visit. “Both sides have open channels of communication; the situation is not as exaggerated as the outside world makes it out to be,” Zhou said.

Hegseth signalled a shift in posture, telling the audience that what US allies in the region wanted from Washington was “strength that is disciplined, resolve that is steady, and leadership that is confident enough to speak and walk softly while carrying a big stick.”

‘3.5% of GDP’ and ‘no freeloading’

Hegseth said the United States expected its Asian allies and partners to increase defence spending to 3.5 per cent of GDP, even as Washington pledged a $1.5 trillion investment in its own military for the year ahead — a “generational investment,” as Hegseth described it, designed to “unleash America’s arsenal of freedom and expand America’s military dominance for decades to come.”

“We demand 3.5 per cent from our allies and partners, and we are going well beyond that number,” Hegseth said. “We expect every single ally and partner to match that kind of resolve.”

He echoed Trump’s long-standing demand that allies shoulder more of their own defence costs. “The era of the United States subsidising the defence of wealthy nations is over,” Hegseth said. “We need partners, not protectorates. We seek alliances built on shared responsibility, not dependency. We don’t have a strong alliance unless everyone has skin in the game. No freeloading.”

He praised contributions from India, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines.

Hegseth also took a pointed swipe at European allies, reiterating criticism — without naming names — of European partners who he suggested had got “distracted by empty globalist rhetoric about the rules-based international order,” the Associated Press reported. Asian partners, he said, had “long understood that the bedrock of a durable partnership is not based on idealistic values but on the concrete alignment of national interests.”

“When our interests diverge, we adjust pragmatically, without the drama or the moralising,” Hegseth said. “I think Western Europe might take note — this is a mindset we fully embrace.”

(Note: The story was updated with the latest Hegseth statement)