WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military is being pulled out of the Asia-Pacific and back into the Middle East as the Iran war drains attention, assets and planning ahead of President Donald Trump’s summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping next month. The shift comes as the U.S. aims to eliminate the threat posed by Iran’s nuclear and missile programs, while Beijing keeps pressing to unseat the U.S. as the regional leader.
Who Pays for the Pivot That Never Stuck
The people at the bottom of this geopolitical shuffle are not the ones making the calls. Military assets have been moved away from Asia, and the demands of the Iran war also forced Trump to delay by several weeks his highly anticipated trip to China. That delay deepened worries that the U.S. is once again getting distracted at the cost of its strategic interests in Asia.
Those skeptical of U.S. involvement in the Middle East say the war is preventing Trump from adequately preparing for his summit with Xi next month, when economic interests are on the line. They warn that failure to focus on Asia and maintain strong deterrence could lead to greater instability if China believes the time is ripe to seize the self-governed island of Taiwan.
Danny Russel, a distinguished fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute, said, “This is precisely the wrong time for the United States to turn away and be sucked into another intractable Middle East conflict.” He added, “Rebalancing to Asia is highly relevant to America’s national interests, but it has been undercut by many bad decisions.”
The Machinery of Deterrence
Others defend the president’s approach, arguing that the forceful steps he is taking elsewhere, including in Venezuela and Iran, serve to counter China globally. Matt Pottinger, who served as a deputy national security adviser in the first Trump administration, said in a recent podcast, “Beijing is the chief sponsor for the adversaries that President Trump is dealing with sequentially, and it’s wise to do this sequentially.” NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte also said conflicts may not be confined to a single theater, saying Thursday at the Ronald Reagan Institute in Washington, “Most likely it will not be limited, something in the Indo-Pacific to the Indo-Pacific. It will be a multi-theater issue.”
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, recently led a bipartisan group of senators to Taiwan, Japan and South Korea, where they heard concerns about the impact of the war on energy costs and about the departure of U.S. military assets, including missile defense systems from South Korea and a rapid-response Marine unit from Japan. Shaheen said she sought to reassure them of the U.S. commitment to deterring conflicts in Asia and shoring up regional stability. “Failure is not an option,” Shaheen told The Associated Press after returning from Asia. “We know China has already said they intend to take Taiwan by force if they need to, and they’re on an expedited time schedule. And we also know that what happened in Europe, in the war in Ukraine, in the Middle East is affecting those calculations.”
Kurt Campbell, who served as deputy secretary of state in the Biden administration, said he is worried that the military capabilities the U.S. had patiently accumulated in the Indo-Pacific region might not return in full even after the Iran war ends. Zack Cooper, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute who studies the U.S. strategy in Asia, said the longer the conflict goes on, the more it will pull resources and focus away from Asia, and that future arms sales to the region also will be negatively affected. Cooper said, “The United States has expended substantial numbers of munitions in the Middle East and will have to keep an increased force presence there, some of which has been redirected from Asia.” He added, “Meanwhile, Xi Jinping’s wisdom in preparing a ‘war time’ economy by stockpiling and adding alternate energy sources has shown itself to be beneficial.” Shaheen said the U.S. defense industry will struggle to meet the demand to replenish the weapons stockpile. “We’re working on a number of strategies to improve that, but at this point, timelines for weapons delivery are slipping,” she said. Shaheen said she is encouraged that Taiwan, Japan and South Korea are stepping up their own defense.
What the Empire Said It Wanted
Obama’s strategic rebalance to Asia reflected his understanding that the U.S. must be a player in the Pacific to harness the region’s growth and ensure continued U.S. leadership in the face of China’s rising influence. In a speech to the Australian Parliament, Obama said, “After a decade in which we fought two wars that cost us dearly, in blood and treasure, the United States is turning our attention to the vast potential of the Asia-Pacific region. So make no mistake, the tide of war is receding, and America is looking ahead to the future that we must build.”
But the strategy was set back when a proposed trade agreement known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership with key U.S. regional partners failed to get through the U.S. Senate. After Trump first took office in 2017, he withdrew the U.S. from the partnership and launched a tariff war with China. His Democratic successor, Joe Biden, kept Trump’s tariffs on China and tightened export controls on advanced technology, while strengthening regional alliances to counter China.
By the time Trump rolled out his national security strategy in late 2025, the U.S. strategy in Asia had been narrowed to military deterrence in the Taiwan Strait and the First Island Chain, a string of U.S.-aligned islands off China’s coast that restrict its access to the Western Pacific. The national security document says it is in the economic interest of the U.S. to secure access to advanced chips, which are sourced primarily from Taiwan and are needed to power everything from computers to missiles, and to protect shipping lanes in the South China Sea. “Hence deterring a conflict over Taiwan, ideally by preserving military overmatch, is a priority,” the document says. “We will build a military capable of denying aggression anywhere in the First Island Chain.” The Middle East, it says, should be getting less attention: “As this administration rescinds or eases restrictive energy policies and American energy production ramps up, America’s historic reason for focusing on the Middle East will recede.” Then came the Iran war.