Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s nominee for defense secretary, couldn’t name a single country in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations at his confirmation hearing on Tuesday – he even named Australia instead.

Senator Tammy Duckworth asked Hegseth to speak to the importance of the political and economic alliance and to make clear how unsuited he is to lead the Pentagon and its vast workforce.

“You talked a little bit about the Indo-Pacific. … Can you identify the importance of at least one of the nations in ASEAN and what type of agreement we have with at least one of these nations? And by the way, how many nations are there in ASEAN?

“I can’t tell you the exact number of nations, but I know we have allies in South Korea and Japan and in AUKUS with Australia (we) are working with them on submarines…”

“Mr. Hegseth, none of these countries are part of ASEAN. “None of the three countries you mentioned are part of ASEAN,” Duckworth replied. “I suggest that you do some homework before preparing for such negotiations .”

“This may seem like a small, embarrassing pitfall, but ASEAN is an acronym you often come across when doing even very basic reading about the Pentagon’s strategy for countering China,” says Yahoo’s Jordan Weissman wrote on X.

ASEAN consists of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. The United States regularly conducts joint military exercises with member states.