One, an abidance to the rule of law is critical as to which countries we choose to deepen our relationships with. Two, converge strategic interests. This creates more opportunities to work with countries that don't share the same political system—for example, Vietnam.
This is a challenge. How do we match these two contradictory positions? If we want to have a sustained position within the Indo-Pacific and in particular in and around Southeast Asia, we'll have to have some flexibility in how we deal with countries with different political systems.
In terms of criteria, countries like South Korea, Japan and Singapore are clear priorities, but we need to have some flexibility to ensure that we have partnerships with countries that don't share the same respect for democracy, human rights and the rule of law, such as Vietnam. I think this is the only way to have a sustained, meaningful presence in a heterogeneous region that has so many different political systems.