Singapore, Jun 10 (PTI) Southeast Asian nations should take advantage of the competition between the US and China, the world's two largest economies, Director of The India Project at the Brookings Institution, a US think tank, Dr Tanvi Madan, said on Friday.

Asking whether or not Southeast Asian nations wanted their "territorial integrity, sovereignty and freedom of navigation to be respected", Madan told these nations that an increased attention from major powers could provide them resources such as "infrastructure, clean energy, high-quality vaccines."

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She also said that the Southeast Asian countries must take advantage of the competition between the world's two largest economies.

"And do countries in the region want help to tackle things like natural disasters or illegal fishing?" Madan asked, adding whether or not these countries wanted to "deter larger countries from taking actions that disturb these rules"?

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Explaining as to how the Southeast Asian nations can "get more resources for themselves", Madan at a pre-conference opening session of experts argued that the Southeast Asian nations must "play one off against the other, but don't get crushed".

Madan said this in a response to comments by Yun Sun, a senior fellow and director of the East Asia and China programmes at the Stimson Centre, a US research organisation, who said that for some Southeast Asian countries alignment with China was motivated by necessity rather than any notion of Beijing's "inspirational power".

"The biggest appeal of China to the region is China's economic leverage… and the infrastructure and financing that China can provide," she stressed.

Earlier in the day, United States Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin reaffirmed to his Southeast Asian counterparts Washington's strong commitment to the region through the maintenance of an open, inclusive and rules-based security environment.

The defence leaders were meeting informally on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue, a high-level security summit taking place in Singapore until Sunday.

According to a release from Singapore's Ministry of Defence, Austin said the US would continue to deepen cooperation with Asean nations, particularly in the area of maritime security.

Singapore's Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen also reaffirmed the principles that underpin the strong US-Asean relationship, and said he looked forward to enhancing cooperation with Washington to tackle transnational security challenges.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)