“Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump's nominee for defense secretary, mentioned South Korea, Japan and Australia as U. S. allies when asked to name an ASEAN member.”
What Vera Files found
Indeed, South Korea, Japan and Australia are U.S. allies in the Asia-Pacific region, with South Korea being home to the U.S.' largest army base installation. However, none of these countries are members of ASEAN. ASEAN has 10 member-states, namely: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Their words, from the summary they publish with the rating.
In short
Pete Hegseth made this claim around 15 January 2025. Vera Files (Philippines) looked into it and published its finding on 17 January 2025, 2 days later. Its rating was “Needs context”.
Where the claim appeared
- YouTube videohttp://youtube.com/watch?v=7824w40xn04
Links recorded by Vera Files. Some posts may have been deleted since.
This check was done by Vera Files, not by DoesItStand. We list it so you can find it. Their full evidence and reasoning are in their article.