Freedom of navigation operations conducted by the US and its allies in the South China Sea have heightened the dilemma faced by Southeast Asian nations caught between China and the United States, diplomatic sources and observers have said.

“Claimant nations other than China are wary of Beijing’s activities in the area,” said Collin Koh, a research fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.

“This concern certainly motivates them to encourage the continued presence of friendly, countervailing powers that can hopefully check Beijing’s activities and at least, if not roll back on those activities, to ensure that Beijing is deterred enough to not up the ante with more drastic, escalatory actions aimed at further altering the status quo in the South China Sea.”