ben bland, director of— china or the us. ben bland, director of asean, - china or the us.r of asean, thank you forjoining us on newsday. a free trade deal between the united kingdom and the united states, widely touted as one of the benefits of brexit, will not be happening any time soon. the prime minister, borisjohnson, who's held talks with president biden at the white house, insisted there was �*every prospect�* of a major agreement in the future, but said that the focus for now was on �*practical steps', in his words, to help british exporters. our political editor, laura kuenssberg, reports. the most solemn dedication of the pact that spans the atlantic, lives lost side by side. memories fade maybe, but what shape does a 21st—century relationship take? it does not, not now, mean a trade deal, promised when a very different president sat in that cream armchair. the white house dangles cooperation, but a big pact is not in sight. we're going to talk about trade a little bit today and we're going to have to work that through. on capitol hill this morning, there seemed m

i've been speaking to ben bland, director of the southeast asia programme at the lowy institute, an independenting me how this has all been received. well, there's been a pretty mixed reaction. there are ten member states in asean, with different interests. we've seen a warm reaction from the philippines, which has welcomed the potential for australia to build this new nuclear submarine capability, but we've seen heavy notes of caution from indonesia and malaysia. so different reactions, but i think across the region, there is a sense that people want australia, the us and other allies to balance out china's growing military might. but i also think a lot of governments are concerned that the actions we've seen with aukus and the submarines might prompt china to counteract what the us allies are doing and lead to an escalation towards conflict. there's an ambivalence which i think reflects the complexity of the situation for a lot of south—east asian nations. south—east asian nations are often stuck in that really uncomfortable position of being between the us and china. how concerned do you thi