Seeking support in a budding cold war with Beijing, the U.S. is looking to Southeast Asia, where long-standing allies and security partners have clashed with their giant neighbour in the resource-rich South China Sea. But it is not that easy. Many of the rival claimants are heavily reliant on China for trade and investment and wary of angering the dominant power in the neighbourhood. Their silence on the U.S. statement suggests they don’t want to get ensnared in U.S.-China tensions, said Collin Koh, a Research Fellow at RSIS.