Sen. Tammy Duckworth put Pete Hegseth’s foreign policy chops to the test during his confirmation hearing on Tuesday as President-elect Trump’s pick to lead the Pentagon. The Illinois

During his confirmation hearing, Trump’s Defense Secretary nominee couldn’t name a single member of the Southeast Asian bloc.

Republicans appear poised to confirm Trump's controversial nominee to lead the government's largest and most complex agency

In a heated Senate confirmation hearing for Pete Hegseth, Sen. Tammy Duckworth grilled the proposed defense secretary over the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, asking him if he could name one member and how many countries were in the bloc.

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Tammy Duckworth, grilling President-elect Donald Trump's choice for defense secretary over whether he had the "breadth and depth of knowledge" needed to lead international ...

Hegseth responded at the heated Senate confirmation hearing that he couldn’t tell Duckworth the exact number of ASEAN nations, but that “I know we have allies in South Korea and Japan in AUKUS (a pact between Australia, the United Kingdom and the U.S.) with Australia.”

Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.) “The man is absolutely clueless,” Duckworth assesses bluntly to Rolling Stone. A woman and a combat veteran who lost both ...

Sen. Tammy Duckworth, grilling President-elect Donald Trump’s choice for defense secretary over whether he had the “breadth and depth of knowledge” needed to lead international negotiations, asked Pete Hegseth if could name one member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations,

Senate Democrats appear to be warming up to Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), President-elect Trump’s combative and confrontational nominee for envoy to the United Nations, encouraged by commitments she’ll engage with the global body rather than seek to burn it down.

It is no surprise that a top member of the Trump administration, like Hegseth, faces concerns, as there have been worries that the boss himself may not be keen on Southeast Asia.

As he does regular weightlifting, Wickramasinghe, in his day job of parsing the markets, is projecting that the Straits Times Index (STI), already up 18% last year to around 3,800 points now, can be further lifted to above 4,000 points this year to set a new record.

While Hegseth fumbled in responding to questions from Sen. Tammy Duckworth, who was born in Bangkok and injured in combat while serving in the U.S. military, regional leaders have expressed optimism about U.S. engagement under Trump’s leadership.