Biden’s overall goal of putting allies and partners at the center of his foreign policy is evident in Southeast Asia. A string of senior U.S. officials visited the region; Secretary of State Blinken held video talks with ASEAN foreign ministers; Blinken and Defense Secretary Austin hosted some Southeast Asian colleagues in Washington; Deputy Secretary of State Sherman met with the ambassadors of the ten ASEAN countries to the United States. Perhaps most importantly, Biden attended the U.S.-ASEAN Summit and the East Asia Summit via video — reversing years of the U.S. offending regional leaders by sending lower-level officials to the meetings. The Biden administration has also dialed back some tough language on competition with China. In February, Biden said Washington was in "fierce competition" with Beijing. But ahead of Sherman's visit to China in July, she said she was looking for potential areas for cooperation and called for "guardrails" to be installed in the U.S.-China relationship to prevent both sides from unnecessarily escalating the situation. This change of tone has been welcomed across Southeast Asia. Relatedly, the Biden team has made it clear that Southeast Asian countries are not needed to align themselves with the United States. This has worked well in Southeast Asia, where countries certainly don't want to be forced to side with Washington or Beijing, which could lead to retaliatory actions from the other side.