Signal Biden-era minilateral security networks face uncertainty under Trump's transactional approach

Summary

The Biden administration turned the traditional hub-and-spoke alliance system in East Asia into a more multilayered and multidimensional security cooperation structure. It did so by developing minilateral arrangements such as the Quad, AUKUS, Korea-US-Japan cooperation and US-Japan-Australia cooperation. With the start of the second Trump administration, the prospects for these minilateral frameworks have become uncertain. President Trump values bilateral, transactional cooperation and puts economic pressure even on allies, which clouds the outlook for multilateral security cooperation. The report counts this shift among the factors that will decide what kind of security institutions take root in the region.