Washington's planned strategic shift to Asia will challenge existing alliances as nations try to balance strong economic ties to China with defence links to Washington, a conference heard Sunday.
Many Asian countries have major business relations with China but are also defence allies of the United States.
"The political, economic and cultural ramifications of a newly-empowered Asia are bound to impact existing security and economic relationships," Singapore Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen said at the Shangri-La Dialogue, a conference on security issues.
