Lynn Kuok House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on East Asia
📄 Written testimony: bit.ly/40d8zMM
🎙️ Oral testimony: bit.ly/3T02gZd
@brookings.edu
#UnitedStates #China #IndoPacific #SoutheastAsia #ASEAN #Geopolitics #ForeignPolicy

Thanks to Representatives Brian Mast, Young Kim and Ami Bera (@bera.house.gov) for the opportunity to testify. Thanks also to Subcommittee Democratic staffers Emma Rose Bruce and Gaurav Bansal for their assistance throughout.

The United States has long been valued in Southeast Asia, but that support could fray if Washington is seen as contributing more to instability than to order.

Key recommendations
➤Reverse tariffs; pursue digital, semiconductor & critical minerals trade deals
➤Reaffirm, at the highest levels, US treaty commitments to the Philippines; deepen economic & security ties w key ASEAN partners
➤Deploy international law as a tool of statecraft

My testimony—‘Economics Is Security: Rebuilding US Strategy in Southeast Asia’—laid out how US influence is weakening due to policy missteps: sweeping tariffs, abrupt aid cuts, doubts cast on alliances, and a failure to grasp that in Southeast Asia, economics and security are inseparable.

Thanks to the amazing MSC team and to the tireless photographers for capturing memories and making even a rainy day look like magic. 💕
📸: Michael Kuhlmann
📸 (JD Vance): LSimon
📸 (photo below): Mine!

The session I was meant to chair was cancelled - but it is every day your session is called off because the Vice President of the United States is speaking! 💫

It was also lovely to reconnect with fellow Munich Young Leaders 🇱🇻 @zklukasevica.bsky.social 🇪🇺 Benedetta Berti, as well as Boris Ruge, @alexsoros.bsky.social and many others.

This smaller-format MSC brought together 100 senior decision-makers and experts from both sides of the Atlantic. It allowed for deeper, informal exchanges. I was fortunate to speak with many remarkable women:
🇨🇳 Fu Ying 🇳🇱 @kajsaollongren.bsky.social 🇮🇸 @thordiskolbrun.bsky.social 🇵🇦 Erika Mouynes.

📸 Credit:
Photos 1 and 8: MSC/Kuhlmann
Photos 2-4: Panel 1: MSC/Hecker
Photos 5-7: Panel 2: MSC/Barth-Tuttas