The U.S. Secretary of Commerce announced this week that the United States plans to invest and trade more in Asia. Secretary Wilbur Ross spoke about American efforts to support “sustainable” projects in Asia as a way to answer China’s “Belt and Road” infrastructure program. Ross and U.S. President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, Robert O’Brien, were in Thailand for a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN. Like O’Brien, Ross tried to overcome suspicions that the Trump administration is uninterested in Asia. The president sent his adviser to the ASEAN summit, but he himself did not attend for the second time in two years. “We have no intention of vacating our military or geopolitical position,” Ross told reporters. He added that many people had misunderstood Trump’s 2017 decision to pull out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal.